WEST BANK
\nThe home of a Palestinian man behind a fatal attack on Israelis is to be demolished by Israeli authorities, even though it was built with compensation paid to them after one of their relatives was killed by an Israeli.
\nThe entrances to the east Jerusalem home of Fatima Alqam, her husband Moussa and four children were sealed within days after her 21-year-old son killed seven people outside a synagogue in the settlement of Neve Yaacov.
\nKhayri Alqam was shot dead in the January 27 attack and his family later received a demolition order for their apartment, under a long-standing policy to punish the families of Palestinians who kill Israelis.
\n\u201cWe hope that it won\u2019t be torn down. A lawyer has been appointed and we are waiting for the appeals process\u201d, said one of the assailant\u2019s relatives who requested anonymity, fearing reprisals.
\nKhayri Alqam shared the name of his grandfather, who was killed in 1998, allegedly by an Israeli extremist.
\nAn Israeli man was arrested in 2010 for that attack and a series of other murders of Palestinians, although he was later released and ultimately no one was convicted over the killing.
\n\u201cWho do we complain to?\u201d asked the relative. \u201cHe must be punished. We were wronged in 1998 and wronged today.\u201d
\nThe accused Israeli in that case won the vocal support of Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has risen from extreme-right agitator to his current position as Israel\u2019s national security minister.
\nAn adviser to the politician, whose portfolio includes policing, did not respond to a request from AFP to comment on Ben-Gvir\u2019s relationship with the accused.
\nAt the time of the killing, the Alqam family said they were visited by then-Israeli president Ezer Weizman, and received compensation from the state over the murder.
\nThey used some of the money to build their home in the al-Tur neighbourhood of annexed east Jerusalem and were living on the second floor of the small apartment block, with the other floors taken by relatives.
\nNadia Daqqa, a lawyer with the Israeli rights group HaMoked, said that whether the state paid for part of the construction makes no difference to officials.
\n\u201cFor them, the house was where a Palestinian terrorist lived,\u201d she said.
\nWhen Israeli forces demolish one apartment within a block, they knock down the walls to make it uninhabitable.
\nWhile successive governments have implemented the demolition policy, there has usually been a period after such an order is issued to allow residents to appeal.
\nThat changed with the Alqam home, which under the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sealed within 48 hours of the January 27 attack.
\n\u201cThese changes began with the new right-wing government,\u201d said Daqqa, who represents clients facing demolition orders.
\n\u201cAnd the demolition policy was expanded to include cases in which there were no deaths, or operations (attacks) carried out by children,\u201d she added.
\nLast month the cabinet announced that the family home of a 13-year-old boy who shot and wounded two Israelis in the Silwan neighbourhood of east Jerusalem would also be sealed.
\nIn al-Tur, Fatima and Moussa Alqam have now moved in with his mother in the same building as their sealed apartment, along with their children, aged six to 16.
\nThe four-storey building was like a \u201cmilitary checkpoint\u201d according to Moussa Alqam, with Israeli forces stationed at the property for more than two weeks.
\nA day after the deadly January attack, Israel\u2019s security cabinet announced a slew of retaliatory measures.
\nThis included revoking the rights to social security of \u201cthe families of terrorists that support terrorism\u201d, although the Alqam family has yet to lose such benefits.
\nFatima Alqam said her son had no ownership of their home and his grandmother held the property deed.
\nBut under Israeli legislation, a demolition order can be issued to a relative of an attacker and amounts to a form of \u201ccollective punishment\u201d, Daqqa said.
\nThis approach sparked confusion this month after Netanyahu\u2019s office announced plans to \u201cseal and demolish the home\u201d of a 31-year-old Palestinian who killed three Israelis in east Jerusalem before being shot dead.
\nWhen authorities discovered that Hussein Qaraqe was renting an apartment not owned by a relative, they went in search of an alternative home to raze. They settled upon his parents\u2019 house and sealed it ahead of the expected demolition, Daqqa said.
\nBut in the confusion, his sister\u2019s home was also sealed off by Israeli forces for a few days, before being reopened.
\nThe error was emblematic of the \u201cchaos and current crazy period\u201d, Daqqa said, as the Israeli government seeks to ramp up retaliatory measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEST BANK The home of a Palestinian man behind a fatal attack on Israelis is to be demolished by Israeli authorities, even though it was built with compensation paid to them after one of their relatives was killed by an Israeli. The entrances to the east Jerusalem home of Fatima Alqam, her husband Moussa and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-316210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n