Targeting Homes, Shelters and Shelter Seekers
Abstract
Israel’s founding military doctrine, expressed in its 1948 Plan Dalet, directs attacks on Indigenous civilian Palestinian homes and human settlements that forcibly displace inhabitants into columns and clusters of shelter seekers. Israeli forces often have bombed the displaced persons in flight and/or their places of refuge, including refuges that Israeli military commanders deem ‘safe’ or ‘humanitarian’ zones.
This article traces the pattern of Israeli forces applying their military doctrine in opportunistic phases, most dramatically manifest in the Nakba and two decades of serial wars against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It presents serial examples that demonstrate how this military doctrine has evolved through various tactics and techniques, geographical scope, scale, intensity, rationale and technologies. While these attributes differ slightly over time, they remain consistent with military doctrine set in Israel’s conquest phase (1946–53), institutionalized under a state ideology that aligns Israel’s raison d’état with the serious crimes of apartheid, population transfer and, now, genocide, as currently charged before the International Court.
Joseph Schechla, coordinator, Housing and Land Rights Network – Habitat International Coalition
