A/HRC/44/60 May 2020, at least 68 homes were demolished or sealed (many with the approval of the High Court), while only 8 orders were revoked by the Court.77 51. Punitive demolitions have never been used against the homes of Israeli Jewish civilians who have committed ‘nationalist’ crimes similar to those for which Palestinian homes have been destroyed.78 This distinction has been called “outrageously racist” by Ami Ayalon, a former director of the Israeli Shin Bet, who added that no homes – Palestinian or Israeli – should be punitively destroyed. 79 52. The High Court’s endorsement of the IDF’s core belief in deterrence has been widely criticized. Ami Ayalon has stated that punitive home demolitions are not only “patently immoral”, but that: “the likelihood that a policy of demolishing their families’ homes actually serves as a deterrent is quite low.” 80 Professors Amichai Cohen and Yuval Shany have pointed out that: “there is very little empirical proof that the home demolitions actually deter terrorists; to the contrary, such practice is likely to create an atmosphere of hate that would breed the next generation of terrorists.”81 D. The Closure of Gaza 53. In June 2007, Israel initiated a comprehensive air, sea and land closure of Gaza, which it maintains to this day. This followed the victory by Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian elections, the imposition of international sanctions against the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and the subsequent political split between Fatah and Hamas, each with nominal control over a fragmented segment of the Palestinian territory.82 Subsequently, Gaza has suffered through three devastating rounds of conflict – in 2008-9, 2012 and 2014—as well as sustained protests at the Gaza frontier in 2018-9, all of which resulted in significant civilian deaths and injuries along with widespread property destruction. 54. The impact of Israel’s 13-year closure has been to turn Gaza from a low-income society with modest but growing export ties to the regional and international economy to an impoverished ghetto with a decimated economy and a collapsing social service system. In 2012, the United Nations wondered whether Gaza, given its trajectory, would still be liveable by 2020.83 In a follow-up report in 2017, the UN found that life in Gaza was deteriorating even faster than anticipated.84 In 2020, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process observed that “the immense suffering of the population” in Gaza has continued.85 55. Israel’s stated reason for imposing the closure on Gaza, and for designating the Strip as an “hostile territory” and an “enemy entity” was because of Hamas’ history of deliberating or indiscriminately launching rockets towards civilian centres in Israel and initiating suicide bombings aimed at Israeli civilians. Human rights organizations have verified these acts and condemned their illegality. 86 The Special Rapporteur observes that such practices violate a 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 Ibid. https://www.timesofisrael.com/defense-ministry-no-need-to-demolish-homes-of-abu-khdeir-killers/ https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-no-one-s-house-should-be-demolished-1.5422912. Ibid. https://www.lawfareblog.com/house-demolition-israeli-supreme-court-recent-developments. Also see: G. Harpaz, “Being Unfaithful to One’s Own Principles” (2014), 47 Israeli Law Review 401. T. Baconi, Hamas Contained (Stanford University Press, 2018); S. Roy, The Gaza Strip (3rd ed.) (Institute for Palestine Studies, 2015). https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-195081/ . https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-ten-years-later-un-country-team-in-the-occupiedpalestinian-territory-report/. https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/paper-ad-hoc-liaison-committee-2-june2020-office-united. https://www.hrw.org/report/2002/10/15/erased-moment/suicide-bombing-attacks-against-israelicivilians; https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/100000/mde150872004en.pdf. 13