Orders given to demolish East Jerusalem terrorist’s home

The Home Front Command issued an order Thursday to demolish the home of the Palestinian man who carried out a terrorist attack in central Jerusalem in August.

The terrorist, East Jerusalem resident Muhammed Naif El-Ja’abis, was shot dead by police shortly after running over a pedestrian and ramming a stolen excavator into a bus.

In response to the increasing tensions in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the reinstatement of the policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians who perpetrate terror attacks in Jerusalem, during an emergency cabinet meeting last week.

The prime minister’s directive came in response to a series of deadly hit-and-run terror attacks in Jerusalem that have killed six people and injured dozens of others.

Security personnel inspect the scene where an excavator driver from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber overturned a bus on Shmuel HaNavi street in Jerusalem on Monday, August 4, 2014 (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat voiced his support for Netanyahu’s order and called on Israel to demolish the homes of terrorists as punishment and use all legal measures to deter attackers. Barkat supported the use of “very, very clear aggressive force against violence” and said “there is no other way, unfortunately,” hours after a 17-year-old was killed after an East Jerusalem Palestinian man rammed his van into a crowd last week.

Although Israel discontinued the practice of home demolitions nearly a decade ago, security forces have used the policy on a number of occasions, most recently when the IDF demolished the homes of Hussam Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha, the Hamas operatives responsible for the abduction and murder of three Jewish teenagers in June.

Following the excavator attack, security officials told Channel 2 news that Ja’abis may have carried out the attack for revenge after his cousin’s home was recently demolished.