There is a growing consensus that repression and counter-insurgency can be effective when selective. Yet the empirical evidence is mixed and theories specify that (unmeasured) perceptions of target selection matter. This article addresses this gap by directly measuring individuals’ interpretations of a coercive policy which varies in target selection. It employs original surveys with Palestinians on their exposure to house demolition, views on the policy and attitudes towards the Israel–Palestine conflict. The study finds that when interpreted as indiscriminate, house demolition increases opposition to compromise. The results are consistent when perceived target selection is manipulated in an embedded survey experiment.
AbrahmsM (2013) The credibility paradox: Violence as a double-edged sword in international politics. International Studies Quarterly57(4): 660–671.
2.
Amnesty International (2004) Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property (techical report no. MDE 15/033/2004). Amnesty International.
3.
BenmelechEBerrebiCKlorEF (2015) Counter-suicide-terrorism: Evidence from house demolitions. The Journal of Politics77(1): 27–43.
4.
BlaineyG (1988) The Causes of War (3rd edn). New York: Simon and Schuster.
5.
BravermanI (2007) Powers of illegality: House demolitions and resistance in East Jerusalem. Law & Social Inquiry32(2): 333–372.
6.
B’Tselem (2002) Israel’s Policy of House Demolitions and Destruction of Agricultural Land in the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem: B’Tselem.
B’Tselem (2015) Black flag: The Legal and Moral Implications of the Policy of Attacking Residential Buildings in the Gaza Strip, Summer 2014. Jerusalem: B’Tselem.
11.
Bueno de MesquitaEDicksonES (2007) The propaganda of the deed: Terrorism, counterterrorism, and mobilization. American Journal of Political Science51(2): 364–381.
12.
BymanD (2011) A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13.
CanettiDElad-StrengerJLaviIGuyDBar-TalD (2015) Exposure to violence, ethos of conflict, and support for compromise surveys in Israel, East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza. Journal of Conflict Resolution61(1): 84–113.
CarrollMB (1990) Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the occupied territories: An analysis of its legality in international law. Michigan Journal of International Law11(4): 1195–1217.
16.
Central Intelligence Agency (2009) Best practices in counterinsurgency: Making high-value targeting operations an effective counterinsurgency tool. Office of Transnational Issues. Available from: http://wikileaks.org/cia-hvt-counterinsurgency (accessed 18 December 2014).
17.
CondraLNShapiroJN (2012) Who takes the blame? The strategic effects of collateral damage. American Journal of Political Science56(1): 167–187.
18.
DarcyS (2002–2003) Punitive house demolitions, the prohibition of collective punishment, and the supreme court of Israel. Penn State International Law Review21(3): 477–508.
19.
DarcyS (2003) Israel’s Punitive House Demolition Policy: Collective Punishment in Violation of International Law. Ramallah: Al-Haq.
20.
DavenportC (2007) State repression and political order. Annual Review of Political Science10(1): 1–23.
21.
DeNardoJ (1985) Power in Numbers: The Political Strategy of Protest and Rebellion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
22.
DownesAB (2007) Draining the sea by filling the graves: Investigating the effectiveness of indiscriminate violence as a counterinsurgency strategy. Civil Wars9(4): 420–44.
23.
DuganLChenowethE (2012) Moving beyond deterrence: The effectiveness of raising the expected utility of abstaining from terrorism in Israel. American Sociological Review77(4): 597–624.
24.
FarrellB (2002) Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses as a punitive measure: Application of international law to Regulation 119. Brooklyn Journal of International Law28: 871.
25.
GerberASGreenDP (2012) Field Experiments: Design, Analysis and Interpretation, ShinA (ed.). New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
26.
GingesJAtranSMedinDShikakiK (2007) Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America104(18): 7357–7360.
27.
GurrTR (1970) Why Men Rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
28.
HalperJ (2009) Obstacles to Peace, a Reframing of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict (4th edn). Jerusalem: The Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions.
HudsonLOwensCSFlannesM (2011) Drone warfare: Blowback from the new American way of war. Middle East Policy18(3): 122–132.
31.
HultquistP (2015) Is collective repression an effective counterinsurgency technique? Unpacking the cyclical relationship between repression and civil conflict. Conflict Management and Peace Science34(5): 507–525.
32.
Human Rights Watch (2010a) “I Lost Everything”: Israel’s Unlawful Destruction of Property During Operation Cast Lead. New York: Human Rights Watch.
33.
Human Rights Watch (2010b) Separate and Unequal: Israel’s Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. New York: Human Rights Watch.
34.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (2014) A policy of displacement and dispossession amid renewed conflict. Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Norwegian Refugee Council.
35.
JaegerDASiddiqueZ (2011) Are drone strikes effective in Afghanistan and Pakistan? On the dynamics of violence between the United States and the Taliban (technical report no. 6262). Institute for the Study of Labor.
36.
JaegerDAKlorEFMiaariSHPasermanMD (2012) The struggle for Palestinian hearts and minds: Violence and public opinion in the Second Intifada. Journal of Public Economics96(3–4): 354–368.
37.
JervisR (1976) Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
38.
JohnstonPBSarbahiAK (2016) The impact of U.S. drone strikes on terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. International Studies Quarterly60: 203–219.
39.
KalyvasS (2006) The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
40.
KhawajaM (1993) Repression and popular collective action: Evidence from the West Bank. Sociology Forum8(1): 47–71.
41.
KocherMAPepinskyTBKalyvasSN (2011) Aerial bombing and counterinsurgency in the Vietnam War. American Journal of Political Science55(2): 201–218.
42.
LichbachMI (1987) Deterrence or escalation? The puzzle of aggregate studies of repression and dissent. Journal of Conflict Resolution31(2): 266–297.
43.
LyallJ (2009) Does indiscriminate violence incite insurgent attacks? Evidence from Chechnya. Journal of Conflict Resolution53(3): 331–362.
44.
MargalitM (2007) No Place like Home: House Demolitions in East Jerusalem. The Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions.
45.
MasonTDKraneDA (1989) The political economy of death squads: Toward a theory of the impact of state-sanctioned terror. International Studies Quarterly33(2): 175–198.
46.
OCHA (2015) Under threat: Demolition orders in Area C of the West Bank. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian Territory.
ReicinCV (1986) Preventive detention, curfews, demolition of houses, and deportations: An analysis of measures employed by Israel in the administered territories. Cardozo Law Review8: 515.
54.
SchellingTC (1966) Arms and Influence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
55.
ShalevC (1990) Collective Punishment in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem: B’Tselem.
56.
ShnaydermanR (2004) Through no Fault of their Own: Punitive House Demolitions during the al-Aqsa Intifada. Jerusalem: B’Tselem.
57.
SilberE (2011) Israel’s policy of house demolitions during the First Intifada, 1987–1993. Terrorism and Political Violence23(1): 89–107.
58.
SouleimanovEASirokyDS (2016) Random or retributive? Indiscriminate violence in the Chechen Wars. Journal of Politics68(4): 677–712.
59.
SteeleA (2009) Seeking safety: Avoiding displacement and choosing destinations in civil wars. Journal of Peace Research46(3): 419–429.
60.
The Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions (2011) No home, no homeland, a new normative framework for examining the practice of administrative home demolitions in East Jerusalem. The Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions.
61.
The Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions (2012) Demolishing homes, demolishing peace. The Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions.
62.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (2004) The tenth report on Israeli land sweeping and demolition of Palestinian buildings and facilities in the Gaza Strip 1 April, 2003–30 April,2004. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Available from: http://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=4888 (accessed 13 November 2017).
63.
ToftMDZhukovYM (2015) Islamists and Nationalists: Rebel motivation and counterinsurgency in Russia’s North Caucasus. American Political Science Review109(2): 222–238.
64.
ValentinoBAHuthPBalch-LindsayD (2004) “Draining the sea”: Mass killing and guerrilla warfare. International Organization58(2): 375–407.
65.
WoodEJ (2003) Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambride: Cambridge University Press.
66.
YashuviN (1990) House Demolition and Sealing as a Form of Punishment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: Follow-up Report. Jerusalem: B’Tselem.
67.
ZussmanAZussmanN (2006) Assassinations: Evaluating the effectiveness of an Israeli counterterrorism policy using stock market data. The Journal of Economic Perspectives20(2): 193–206.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
