International Legal Aspects of Punitive House Demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Abstract: Throughout five chapters, the thesis deals with the issues of international humanitarian and human rights law arising out of the practice of punitive house demolition, that is repetitively utilized in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by the Israeli authorities, in response to the acts of insurgency/terrorism. The first chapter (Introduction) enables the reader to get a glimpse of the precise objective(s) of the thesis, coupled with the reservations regarding the scope of the study, due to the practical necessities of the available space and time. It further presents a relatively detailed legal historical background of punitive house demolitions, ranging from the early years of the British rule in the OPT, throughout the subsequent political vicissitudes and changes in the sovereign powers, till the present moment. The chapter also covers the basic, related facts on prerogatives of the competent judicial system in the OPT, comprising military courts and the Israeli Supreme Court. The second chapter (Contemporary Profile - Factual Analysis) provides a fairly detailed insight into the empirical data of punitive house demolitions, starting with the definition of the phenomenon and the introductory analysis of the regulations vesting the authority to the military commander of the area for ordering the demolitions. It further scratches the patina of the official justifications and a highly varying frequency over the course of time, ending with the brief analytical estimation of its disputed effectiveness, based on the available data. The third chapter (Applicable Law - the Relevant Legal Analysis) is virtually the most important part of the thesis, which fully concentrates on the issue of direct application of the relevant law to the presented facts, aiming at a strictly legal identification of the violations of humanitarian and human rights law. The chapter offers a fairly extensive analysis of the most prominent allegations of the violations of international law, with due respect to the said limitations, condemning the practical omnipotence of the military commander and the uninterrupted pursuance of the punitive practice. The fourth chapter (Monitoring) attempts to reanimate the relevant portions of international law, under the heavy burden of realpolitik. The reader can obtain a succinct picture of the missing and existing possibilities of constructive monitoring aiming to finally introduce the respect for human rights of the OPT population. In certain points, the section reminds of the reality of prevalence of inter-governmental political interest, in contravention of the precisely coined legal obligations of the international community to ensure the respect of international law. However, the hope of contra development persists. The fifth chapter (Conclusion) streamlines the legal argumentation of the previous chapters, with the concrete pointers to the issues previously discussed.