It is the beginning of their nightmares. Many Palestinians go to bed every night without knowing if their home will be bulldozed during the night by the Israeli police. According to Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), destroying residences is one of Israel’s main weapons in the occupation of Palestinian land.

The destruction of homes is similar in most cases. The police, and sometimes the military, arrive at dawn while families are sleeping. They surround the house and call for the family to come outside. If the family resists, they will be forcefully removed and the bulldozers will begin their tragic task of destruction. Only sometimes are families allowed to take some of their possessions with them.

At other times the homes, because of their size, are wired with explosives and blown up, rather than bulldozed. When that happens, the police form a human barrier in front of the street leading to the house, to block the residents from any resistance when seeing their homes wired with explosives and destroyed. An Amnesty International report states that house demolitions are many times carried out without prior warning and the home’s inhabitants are given little time to evacuate.

From Jan. 1 to Aug. 18, the Israeli police demolished 331 Palestinian structures in Area C (not including East Jerusalem) and 457 people, including 263 children, lost their homes, according to data from the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.

According to the Israeli government, homes are destroyed because they have no building permits. Therefore, the house is illegal and subject to demolition. What the government doesn’t say, however, is that it is practically impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits, which makes the building of any new homes illegal.

“The destruction of Palestinian homes, agricultural land and other property in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, is inextricably linked with Israel’s long-standing policy of appropriating as much as possible of the land it occupies, notably by establishing Israeli settlements,” states Amnesty International.

The practice of home demolitions originated under the British mandate. The government gave the military commanders authority to confiscate and raze “any house, structure or land … the inhabitants of which he is satisfied have committed … any offense against these regulations involving violence.” In 1945 the authorities passed the Defense (Emergency) Regulations. Regulation 119 made this practice available to the local military commander without restrictions or appeal.

In 1968, after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, Theodor Meron, who was a legal adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told the prime minister’s office that house demolitions, even of suspected terrorists’ residences, were “legally unconvincing” and violated the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in war. This view is shared by most scholars of international law, including prominent Israeli experts.

Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions oppose the practice, and argue that it violates international laws against collective punishment, the destruction of private property and the use of force against civilians.

Even the use of the practice of home demolitions as a deterrence of violent actions by Palestinians has been questioned. In 2005, an Israeli Army commission to study house demolitions found no proof of effective deterrence, and concluded that the damage caused by the demolitions overrides its effectiveness.

International human rights groups accuse the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces of carrying out demolitions as a form of collective punishment, and as theft of Palestinian land by annexation to build the Israeli West Bank barrier or to create, expand or otherwise benefit Israeli settlements.

There is something gruesome about the most powerful army in the Mideast, and one of the most powerful armies in the world, attacking innocent civilians and destroying their homes and possessions. In the same way as Israelis do, Palestinians have the basic right to live in peace in their own homes.

Cesar Chelala is a winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

KEYWORDS Israel, Palestine