Avigdor Lieberman
Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg
Lieberman weighing widening criteria for home demolitions
Defense minister says he’s examining possibility of extending policy of home demolition to include terrorists who have inflicted serious injuries on Israeli citizens rather than limiting it to those whose attacks have resulted in murder; ‘There is no difference. In both cases the homes must be demolished.’
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has announced that he is seeking advice from the IDF and legal advisors in his ministry on the possibility of demolishing the homes of terrorists whose attacks have caused serious injuries to Israeli citizens.
Currently, the IDF demolishes homes of terrorists only if their attacks result in death.
“There is no difference between an attack that ends in murder and an attack that ends in serious injury. In both cases the homes of the terrorists must be demolished,” Lieberman said.
Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
“The struggle against terror demands that we be determined and act in different ways with a heavy hand against those who try to harm us, both the people who carry out attacks and those who send them,” the defense minister explained.
Despite conflicting views of the expediency of the policy, with some claiming it works as a deterrent and others insisting it only foments further hatred and leads to more attacks, for Lieberman there was little doubt as to its impact.
Niv Nehamiah
“Demolishing homes of murderous terrorists is a proven effective deterrence tool in the struggle against terror against those who plan to commit attacks. As part of this uncompromising struggle, I suggest that we need to destroy the homes of terrorists who carry out attacks which seriously injure civilians.”
The extension of the policy to such terrorists has been a notion being advocated in recent weeks by Niv Nehemiah, who in August was repeatedly stabbed by a terrorist in a supermarket in Yavneh and was hospitalized in Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot in life-threatening condition.
