Chilling possibility

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has proposed a policy of home demolitions even for terrorists whose acts don’t kill anyone (“Defense Minister calls for expansion of home demolitions for all terrorists,” October 30).

According to one thorough study reported in The New Republic in December 2014, terror attacks declined somewhat during the months immediately following a “punitive demolition,” but that effect proved “small, localized and diminish[ing] over time.” Punitive home demolitions are done mostly “to placate the Israeli public.”

Many assert that home demolitions are collective punishment and violate Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons... is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.”

Home demolitions are illegal and immoral. They are a tool used by a government claiming to act in my name in a sickeningly racist manner – no home of any Jewish terrorist has been demolished, whether those murdered were Jews or non-Jews.

If Liberman does expand this policy (and I pray wiser heads prevail!), the government must apply it to all who violate it. Or will it continue to confirm in the eyes of the world that Israel is, in fact and practice, a racist state?

That possibility chills me to my core! JUDY BAMBERGER O’Connor, Australia