Court dismisses claim for missing IDF soldier reward

The Haifa District Court dismissed a lawsuit demanding the state pay a $10 million reward for locating the body of a missing IDF soldier.

Judge Tamar Sharon Netanel threw out the case because the plaintiffs, the brothers Ibrahim and Hadar Kozli from the northern town of Dalyat al-Karmel, had not paid the required hundreds of thousands of shekels in court fees, Maariv reported on Wednesday.

The story began in October 2012 when Ibrahim Kozli, a Jewish National Fund worker, discovered a body in Nahal Hik in the Carmel Forest as he was clearing an area damaged in a fire. The remains were later identified as that of Majdi Halabi, a Druze soldier who had been missing since May 2005.

Kozli and his brother sued the State of Israel, the Defense Ministry, and the Born To Be Free non-profit organization for the multi-million dollar reward that had been offered for locating the missing Halabi. Born to Be Free campaigns for the return of missing IDF soldiers from all conflicts since the 1980s.

However, in order for the courts to consider the case the finder was required to pay a fee of NIS 500,000 ($140,221) an amount far beyond the resources of the Hozlis. The brothers also failed to pay a reduced fee that the Haifa court had granted them to pay following an earlier appeal.

According to the report the court also clarified that the reward money was intended for anyone who had concrete information about the missing soldier’s location and was not meant for someone who reported finding the body, as that was the duty of every citizen anyway.

Halabi was laid to rest in October 2012.