JERUSALEM // The east Jerusalem home of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly attack last month was demolished by Israel on Wednesday.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised a harsh response following recent violence.
The Jerusalem municipality also said it approved the construction of 78 new homes for Jewish settlers in two neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem.
The announcement comes with tensions in the city at the highest in years, partly over Palestinian objections to Jewish settlers moving in.
“I have ordered the destruction of the homes of the Palestinians who carried out this massacre and to speed up the demolitions of those who carried out previous attacks,” Mr Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
Hours later Israeli forces razed the east Jerusalem apartment of the family of Abdelrahman Shaludi, who deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of pedestrians last month, killing a young woman and a baby.
Israeli troops blasted the interior of the third-floor apartment located in a four-story apartment building, leaving piles of cinderblocks and holes in the exterior walls. The blast caused minor damage to neighbouring apartments and flattened a car parked below.
The family had moved out ahead of the demolition and were staying with relatives.
Sitting amid the rubble of the demolished family home, Shaludi’s grandmother said she was proud of him.
“No one should feel sorry for us, for our demolished home,” she said.
Shaludi was shot by police as he fled the scene of his October 22 rampage, and later died of his wounds.
Israel is struggling to contain a wave of unrest in east Jerusalem that has seen a growing number of deadly attacks by Palestinians.
Four rabbis and a policeman were killed on Tuesday after two Palestinians wielding meat cleavers and a gun launched a rare assault on a synagogue.
Punitive house demolitions have been used by Israel for years in the West Bank but the policy was halted in 2005 after the army said they had no proven deterrent effect.
Until now, razing homes has never been adopted as a matter of policy.
“Where can we go now? We have nowhere to live, no home,” said Shaludi’s sister Nibras, a young teenager in a bright pink flowered headscarf.
Israel’s decision to resume the policy of house demolitions was taken on November 6 following a second attack by a Palestinian using a car which killed two Israelis, an official said.
The aim, he said was “to restore calm in Jerusalem” following a wave of attacks in the city.
In 2005, the army had recommended halting the policy, saying it was not effective as a deterrent and suggesting it was likely to encourage violence.
Human rights groups have denounced the practice as collective punishment targeting not the perpetrators but their families.
And last week, the US State Department warned that demolishing homes would be “counterproductive” and would “exacerbate an already tense situation” in Jerusalem.
Israeli commentators too acknowledged a dispute over the effectiveness of the measure.
“The Shin Bet (internal security service) contends that it deters, the army contends that it does not and that it could even have the opposite effect — it sows the seeds for the next terror attack,” wrote Nahum Barnea in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
“But all that is irrelevant, because the government ... feels that it must show the public that it is punishing the other side.”
Aside from the homes of the two Palestinians behind the synagogue attack, three more east Jerusalem apartments are earmarked for demolition in connection with a spate of attacks over the past three months.
Jordan, custodian of Muslim holy places in east Jerusalem, said it was following “the serious situation” in the city, condemning all acts of violence and calling for “restraint and calm.”
Clergy representing Christians, Jews and Muslims met on Wednesday near the Jerusalem synagogue that was the scene of Tuesday’s attack to plead for tolerance.
Absent from the meeting were Muslim authorities from Jerusalem and senior Israeli rabbis.
“People from all religions which are here in the Holy Land want to express the common belief that this is not the way,” said Rabbi Michael Melchior, a former Israeli legislator who is active in interfaith efforts.
“We can have our differences, political differences, our religious differences, but this is not the way.”
* Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters
