As the Forward reported back in September, house demolitions "date back to a 1945 British Mandate emergency regulation in pre-state Palestine that allowed the British military to confiscate and destroy any home used to discharge a weapon, or any home used by a person who violated military law."

While the policy is meant to have a psychological effect for a would-be attacker whose family would be left homeless, some suggest house demolitions are also designed to offset the economic benefits of committing an attack. One example: During the first three years of the Second Intifada, the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, as well as the families of those killed in clashes with Israel, routinely received checks for up to $25,000 from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Hussein may be gone, but the financial incentives for Palestinian attackers who are jailed or killed are still around. Back in June, when Israel first announced it would resume house demolitions after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed, an Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post:

On the Palestinian side you have a whole package of incentives to carry out terrorist attacks, such as if we arrest the terrorist, their families get a generous allowance from the PA.

The official also likened the demolitions to a leveling of the economic playing field. But as the European Union reportedly considers sanctioning Israel over its settlements in the West Bank, the reignition of an internationally unpopular policy could also end up harming Israel economically.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the policy, saying in a statement, "We have nothing against the residents of eastern Jerusalem but we will not tolerate attacks on our citizens and we will act against those who do these things and against those engaged in incitement.”

He added: “With a determined and vigorous hand, we will restore security to Jerusalem.”

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