The Boston Globe · Boston, Massachusetts · 1 September 2023
CP-2023-059
Family loses home to Israel’s punitive demolitions
Son had lunged at Israeli police officer with knife
By Isabel Debre, Associated Press, Jerusalem
Transcribed from the clipping
“JERUSALEM — With the walls stripped bare and furniture dismantled, the east Jerusalem apartment is a far cry from the vividly-hued haven it was in early February, when members of the Zalabani family played cards on the cobalt couch and feasted on stewed chicken with richly spiced rice… ‘This is no solution,’ said Mohammed’s mother, Fida Zalabani, her eyes wet as she recalled the effort that went into decorating a house that Israeli security forces ransacked and boarded up, drilling holes into the walls for explosives… ‘Home demolitions intentionally harm innocent people in the hopes that they deter other people from committing attacks,’ said Jessica Montell, HaMoked’s director… ‘When Palestinians see that we destroy houses, their level of fear and frustration and hatred increases,’ said Ami Ayalon, former director of Israel’s Shin Bet security service… The practice is based on regulations imposed by the British Mandate in 1945, which authorized commanders to destroy insurgents’ homes.”
Context added by this archive
The origin of the practice, printed in a Boston newspaper: a British Mandate regulation of 1945. A former head of the Shin Bet is quoted saying it does not work.
Cite this clipping
"Family loses home to Israel’s punitive demolitions," The Boston Globe, 1 September 2023, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2023-059. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2023-059
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-2023-059.
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