JERUSALEM—Reviving a controversial anti-terror measure—destruction of the homes of militants responsible for fatal attacks—Israeli security forces scored a quick success over last weekend when a Palestinian man turned in his son rather than risk the family home being demolished.
According to the Shin Bet Security Service, the son, 28-year-old Shadi Ahmad Matua, had forced a car on the West Bank to the side of the road last Friday and shot to death the driver, Rabbi Yaakov Litman, and his 18-year-old son, Natan. The gunman then opened the rear door and saw in the two rear rows Rabbi Litman’s wife, a 16-year-old son and three daughters ranging in age from 5 to 11. He withdrew without firing. The family was on the way to relatives to celebrate the imminent wedding of Litman’s oldest daughter, who was not in the car.
Coincidentally, Israeli security forces that night destroyed the homes of four terrorists convicted of murdering Israelis since the current terror wave on the West Bank broke out more than a month ago. The authorities, who wanted the demolitions as a deterrence, carried them out less than 48 hours after the High Court of Justice approved them.
Matua’s father was informed by another son, Majdi, that Shadi had told him that he was the gunman involved in Friday’s shooting, according to the Hebrew-language Ynet news site. The decision to inform the authorities of Shadi’s involvement was made Saturday night by the father and Majdi, according to the report. Shadi, who is married and has two children, apparently shares the family home in Hebron. It is not known whether his father consulted with him first.
The report of the incident in the Israeli media touched off widespread criticism of the father in the Palestinian community, moving him to issue a denial that it was he who had turned his son in. Shin Bet officials said that the murder weapon had been recovered.
Demolitions had been used in the past by Israel, particularly after the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada in which 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis were killed. Between 2002 and 2005 roughly 270 homes were razed. A moratorium was declared by then Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Ya’alon after a committee found little proof that demolitions served as deterrence. It might be counter-productive, the committee said, by provoking terror acts from affected relatives.
Almost a decade later, Ya’alon, now Israel’s defense minister, decided in the face of almost daily knifings and other attacks, to reinstate the demolition policy. Less than 48 hours after the four demolitions were completed Friday night, the alleged perpetrator of the latest fatal attack, Shadi Matua, was in Israeli hands.
"This step really deters," said Ya’alon. "The best example of that is the father who turned in his son. In recent weeks and months, parents have turned in their children or told us their children are on the way to carry out an attack. There’s no doubt it works."
Critics decry the policy as collective punishment but advocates say that suicide bombers, who have no hesitation about taking their own lives, may have second thoughts if they know that their families will be made homeless.
Although the four demolitions Friday were carried out without encountering opposition, a fifth demolition Sunday night developed into an armed battle when Palestinians decided to challenge the new Israeli policy. Several hundred Palestinians were waiting when a large Israeli force entered the Qalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem in the early hours of the morning to demolish the home of a local resident convicted of killing a settler. Most were armed with rocks or firebombs. Some, however, had guns.
The troops deployed snipers who killed two of the gunmen and wounded three other persons. Meanwhile, engineers wired the family home, the upper story of a four story house, with explosives and detonated it. The force withdrew without any casualties.
Ya’alon afterwards expressed his determination continue with the revived policy. "Under no circumstances" will it be stopped, he said.