Ramallah: The Israeli government is set to consider a Likud proposal to stop returning Palestinian bodies back to their families. The bodies of Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal, the young men who conducted the operation in the synagogue last week, have not been returned to their families for burial even after the families submitted a request to an Israeli court in Occupied Jerusalem seeking repatriation. The court rejected the request.
In addition, Israeli Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said Saturday that his department was investigating the feasibility of revoking the residency permits and other rights of East Jerusalem Palestinians who encourage acts of terror.
Meanwhile, despite appeals from the international organization Human Rights Watch to end its demolition of houses of suspected terror act participants, Israel continues the illegal practice in occupied east Jerusalem.
Earlier, Human Rights Watch had called on the Israeli government to stop demolishing Palestinian homes suspected of committing violence. The demolition of these homes is a war crime, the rights group said.
“The policy, which Israeli officials claim is a deterrent, deliberately and unlawfully punish people not accused of any wrongdoing.”
“Punitive home demolitions are blatantly unlawful. Israel should prosecute, convict, and punish criminals, not carry out vengeful destruction that harms entire families,” Joe Stork, the organization’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu should reject a policy of punitive home demolitions,” Stork said. “It is a basic principle of law that one person should not be punished for another’s crime.”
Human Rights Watch claimed that on at least five occasions in 2014, Israeli authorities demolished the family homes of Palestinians suspected of killing Israelis and through doing so left dozens of people homeless.
