AG orders review of ruling barring home demolition of accused soldier killer
Prosecutors to ask High Court to hold another hearing on its decision to halt measure against Palestinian who allegedly killed Amit Ben-Ygal
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit instructed prosecutors to prepare to file a motion for the High Court of Justice to hold another hearing on its decision to bar the military from demolishing the home of a Palestinian man charged with killing an Israeli soldier.
A statement from the Justice Ministry said the request will be filed with the High Court in the coming days.
The court earlier this month forbade the Israel Defense Forces from demolishing the home of Nazmi Abu Bakr, who is accused of killing 21-year-old Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Ygal by throwing a brick at him from a rooftop, as the soldier took part in an operation in the West Bank village of Yabed in May.
The decision to seek another hearing came after politicians and Ben-Ygal’s family slammed the ruling.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz hailed the decision by Mandelblit.
“Demolishing homes as a deterrent is an important tool in the war against terror and I hope the High Court will approve the request and adopt the stance of the security establishment,” Gantz wrote on Twitter.
The High Court canceled the planned demolition earlier in the month in a split decision, allowing the army to instead seal up just one room of the building.
The IDF had already begun preparations in June to demolish the home, leading the Abu Bakr family to file an appeal against the measure.
Justices Menachem Mazuz and George Karra ruled to cancel the demolition, reasoning that Abu Bakr’s wife and eight children, who were not involved in the attack, still live there.
Justice Yael Willner was in favor of carrying out the measure so that it could serve its purpose as a deterrence against future attacks on Israeli forces operating in the West Bank.
Mazuz wrote that the “the serious harm done to innocent family members cannot be ignored — those to whom no involvement in the attack is attributed.”
Kara, agreeing with Mazuz, wrote that “justice will come to the attacker when he gets his punishment. But the consequences of his actions should not be cast on to those who have not sinned.”
Willner, meanwhile, cited “the seriousness of the act… its fatal and serious consequence” as well as “the use made of the structure where the attack was carried out” to argue the order to demolish the home was proportional.
The decision was harshly condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and many ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Netanyahu called the ruling “a sad decision by the High Court.”
“I demand to hold an additional hearing with an expanded panel [of judges],” Netanyahu said. “My policy as prime minister is to destroy the homes of terrorists, and I intend to continue with it.”
Ben-Ygal’s mother lamented the decision following its announcement.
“My son was killed again today,” Nava Revivo told Channel 12 news in regard to the ruling. “Amit won’t come back, but God forbid the same thing will happen to the next soldiers.”
Revivo also suggested the matter shouldn’t be up to the High Court to decide.
“My son loved the Land of Israel, it can’t be that this is the decision. It can’t be that a decision like this is made at all,” she said.
Baruch Ben-Ygal, Amit’s father, released a Facebook video showing an Israeli flag flying at half-staff at a cemetery.
“It doesn’t need to be at the top today,” a tearful Ben-Ygal said. “This is a bad day for the State of Israel.”
In an interview with Channel 13, the father, wearing his son’s dog tag, said the decision “made me weep.” He said he drove to the cemetery after hearing about the court decision to apologize to his son.
He called on the court to reconsider, and to think of Ben-Ygal’s family instead of Abu Bakr’s.
The Shin Bet security service said in May that Abu Bakr confessed to throwing the brick that killed Ben-Ygal during the West Bank raid. He was arrested along with several other people who were believed to have been in the building at the time, and confessed several weeks later, according to the security agency.
The soldier was killed in the predawn hours of May 12, after the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion carried out a series of arrests in Yabed.
Home demolitions are a controversial policy that the IDF says helps deter future terror attacks. Over the years, a number of Israeli defense officials have questioned the efficacy of the practice and human rights activists have denounced it as unfair collective punishment. They are generally carried out before conviction.
