BY ROHAN PEARCE Following the deaths of four Israeli soldiers on January 9 at the hands of members of the terrorist organisation Hamas, tanks and bulldozers of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) began to destroy Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
According to Amnesty International, "Six hundred people, most of them children, were left homeless in this raid against quarters that had no relationship with the attack on the military post." Predictably, the IDF denied that the houses were occupied. The commander of the IDF in Gaza, Yesrael Ziv, told Israel army radio: "We did not see anyone leaving the homes, either before or during the operation." Other members of the IDF, speaking anonymously to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, disputed Ziv's account
Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told journalists that the houses were abandoned. However, he added that if there was proof the houses were occupied he would offer mobile homes to the affected families. In protest at the actions of the IDF, activists from the Alternative Information Centre took to the streets on January 15, spray-painting houses in West Jerusalem that were occupied by Palestinians before the 1948 war with slogans such as "600 souls from Rafah are looking for a home" and "this house will not be demolished by the IDF". Late last year, the Committee against Torture, a United Nations appointed body of experts, found that the destruction of Palestinian homes "may, in certain instances, amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". This breaches Article 16 of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The destruction of homes is also a breach of the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Time of War. Since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000, more than 250 Palestinian homes in Rafah alone have been demolished by the IDF. According to the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute, based in Ramallah, between September 28, 2000 and November 27 last year 510 Palestinian homes were completely destroyed and 6534 were partially demolished. More than 3500 Palestinians have been left homeless as a result. The conditions that Palestinians have to live in when they have lost their homes in such a manner can result in further deaths or serious injuries and illness. A particularly tragic example is five children from the same family who were burnt to death from a fire caused by a candle lighting the tent they were forced to live in after their home was destroyed by the Israeli military. Continued Israeli repression has not prevented violent resistance by Palestinians. Ending the violence is not the goal of the Israeli government. The understandably violent reactions of Palestinians to the continual atrocities committed by the Israeli occupation forces are seized on by the Israeli government and its backers, principally the US, to justify further attacks on Palestinians.
The aim of these attacks is to pressure Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority in to suppressing the intifada and coming to an accommodation with Israel on Israel's terms. As Ghazi Hamad, editor of the Islamic newspaper al Resala, told the Chicago Tribune, "when they see the pain felt here, this encourages Hamas and all of the factions to be involved in the armed struggle". Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's grip on power, and the need for a continual war-footing to maintain it, will ensure that atrocities such as the destruction of the homes in Rafah will continue.
From Green Left Weekly, January 23, 2002.
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