Israel to Build Settler Units on Top of Attacker's Family Home

Israel is not only destroying the family home of the Palestinian man who carried out a truck attack against Israeli soldiers in the occupied East Jerusalem Saturday, but will also build illegal settler homes on the remains of the house, reports in Israeli media said Wednesday.

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Israel's Channel 10 reported that the city’s municipality had approved plans to build a new illegal settlement in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir where Fadi Qunbar’s family home is located, which neighbors the illegal Israeli settlement of East Talpiyyot.

Despite the family denying that they had advanced knowledge of the attack, Israel still ordered the demolition of their home. But now the house and the land will be seized and the family will be homeless and robbed of their property. According to the report, at least 2,500 illegal settler homes will be built.

The demolition of houses of Palestinian attackers has been criticized by right groups as collective punishment and illegal under international law. The Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported that Qunbar’s mother and 12 other of his relatives will also have their Jerusalem residency status revoked.

The Israeli government has been framing the attack as part of global Islamist extremism, which the Palestinian Ministry of Information called a “venomous incitement campaign.” Qunbar carried out the truck attack in East Talpiyyot killing four and ending up shot dead at the scene.

Several rights groups including the United Nations have said the unrest in the Palestinian-occupied territories, which started in October 2015, is mainly driven by the frustration of Palestinians youth with the Israeli occupation and oppression and the lack of any prospect of peace or realization of a sovereign Palestinian state.

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“The Ministry of Information has followed with much shock and little surprise the Israeli-orchestrated incitement against the Palestinians following yesterday’s truck incident in occupied Jerusalem,” the Palestinian Ministry said in a statement according to Ma’an.

“Israel wasted no time in drumming up venomous incitement campaign attempting to connect our people with terror and ISIS for obvious reasons related to political gains,” it added, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

The news comes just more than a month after Israeli settlements activity were spotlighting after the U.N. Security Council approved a rare resolution condemning settlements and calling on Tel Aviv to halt construction.

However, the current government considered one of the most conservative in Israel’s history, is unlikely to put the brakes on settlements as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump fills up his administration with extreme right and pro-settlements advisors and aides.