Israel’s High Court of Justice, reversing itself Tuesday, authorized the army to proceed with the demolition of houses in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of El-Bureij, where a soldier was stoned and burned to death last week.
A three-judge panel accepted the argument of Maj. Gen. Mattan Vilnai, Israel Defense Force commander in the southern region, that the demolition was “an urgent and immediate military need,” rather than a punitive measure.
Vilnai promised that any innocent residents whose property is destroyed would be compensated.
Earlier the issue seemed to hinge on whether collective punishment should be applied at El-Bureij for the savage murder there Sept. 20 of reserve Sgt. Amnon Pomerantz.
15 SHOPS ALREADY RAZED
The High Court of Justice had issued an injunction late Monday temporarily barring the demolition of Arab homes and shops in the refugee camp.
It acted on a petition from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, after the army reportedly ordered the occupants of about 10 houses and 10 shops to evacuate their premises.
Yehoshua Shofman, an attorney for the civil rights group, argued that the IDF should delay the demolitions for a few days to give residents of El-Bureij a chance to appeal the order.
They were unable to appeal immediately, because the camp has been under an around-the-clock curfew since the killing last Thursday, the group pointed out.
Demolition ceased after the restraining order was issued Monday evening. By then, bulldozers had managed to raze 15 shops along a 230-foot strip.
Another 17 shops and an unspecified number of homes were slated to be destroyed in the area where Pomerantz’s car was battered with rocks and set on fire.
The 46-year-old reserve soldier, who drove into the camp by mistake, was stoned unconscious and burned to death after his car struck a donkey cart injuring two Arab children.
Gen. Vilnai, whose appearance before the high court panel was unusual for a ranking IDF officer, said Pomerantz hit the cart because the main road into the camp is very narrow.
He said the army urgently needed to widen that section of road as a security measure, not a punishment. The widening requires the demolition of buildings.
“The immediacy of the action is vital to restore order to the entire Gaza Strip,” the general said. “We must act as swiftly as possible. A traumatic act demands immediate action,” he said.
OTHER PRECAUTIONS TAKEN
The IDF, meanwhile, has taken other precautions to forestall the spread of unrest.
Curfews were imposed Tuesday on the Nuseirat and Jabalya refugee camps. Jabalya, the largest camp in the Gaza Strip, has 60,000 residents.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Dan Meridor rejected criticism that there was too much legal intervention with the defense establishment.
Appeals to the High Court of Justice, Israel’s supreme court, do not hinder the armed forces from discharging their duties in the administered territories, Meridor said.
He stressed that Israel is a law-abiding country whose authorities do not act arbitrarily, “neither in Tel Aviv nor in Gaza.”
But Abu Medien, head of the Gaza lawyers union, told reporters, “We have no trust in the High Court, because we have rarely won a case. There is law in Israel, but as far as the occupied territories are concerned, there is only the gun,” he said.
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