High Court rejects appeal against demolishing 13-year-old Palestinian stabber’s home
Justices rule 2-1 in favor of allowing residence of Muhammad Zalbani, who stabbed policeman in fatal attack in February, to be razed; rights group slams ‘highly problematic’ policy
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The High Court of Justice on Thursday rejected an appeal against demolishing the home of a 13-year-old Palestinian who stabbed a Border Police officer to death at a checkpoint in Jerusalem earlier this year.
The justices ruled 2-1 in favor of allowing the demolition of Muhammad Bassel Fathi Zalbani’s home in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem.
On February 13, Zalbani stabbed 22-year-old Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed in the head on a bus at a checkpoint near East Jerusalem’s Shuafat Refugee Camp. Sawaed was also shot in the thigh by another security guard. The teenager has since been charged with aggravated murder and is expected to be placed in a juvenile detention center, due to his age.
Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly attacks as a matter of policy. The efficacy of the policy has been hotly debated, even within the Israeli security establishment, while human rights activists denounce the practice as unjust collective punishment.
In the High Court’s decision, Justice Alex Stein said the policy of demolishing the homes of minors accused of deadly terror attacks is an effective way of deterring their parents. “In a significant number of cases, the prospect of the demolition of a young attacker’s house or apartment causes his parents to scold him, monitor his actions, and convince him to refrain from carrying out an attack,” Stein said.
Justice Uzi Fogelman, however, said that it was unclear to him if demolishing the homes of minors would be an effective deterrent in all cases. Additionally, he noted that the demolition order for Zalbani’s home was signed six months after the stabbing, a significant delay considering the indictment was filed just ten days after the attack. He said that the longer the period was between an attack and the home demolition, the less effective the deterrence would be.
Justice Gila Kanfi-Steinitz agreed with Stein, saying that “the current security reality requires measures to be taken to protect the public and prevent additional victims, despite the young age of the victim.”
The Israeli HaMoked rights group, representing the Zalbani family, slammed the court’s decision.
“HaMoked opposes all punitive home demolitions as a blatant form of collective punishment of innocent people. However, this case is a very worrying escalation of the policy: First, the boy did not actually kill Sawaed, and second, if as they claim these home demolitions are intended as a deterrent, the idea that such demolitions could deter 13-year-old boys from engaging in violence is highly problematic,” HaMoked’s executive director, Jessica Montell, told The Times of Israel.
In general, the demolition process takes several months, as the home needs to be mapped out, the High Court must address appeals by the family, and security forces often wait an optimal time to enter Palestinian cities or neighborhoods for the operation.
Since Zalbani’s home is in East Jerusalem, the demolition itself will be carried out by the Israel Police. The seizure and demolition order for the home was signed in July by the head of the IDF’s Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, as he is the relevant officer within Israeli territory, including East Jerusalem.
According to the indictment filed at the District Juvenile Court in Jerusalem on February 23, Zalbani, a resident of the Shuafat Refugee Camp, found a knife as he was leaving the building in which he lives, and allegedly decided to commit the attack.
Zalbani took a bus heading into Jerusalem that passes through a checkpoint, where he sought to attack security forces. The indictment said the teen sat at the back of the bus, placed the knife near his leg to be able to draw it quickly, and waited for security forces to board for a routine inspection.
Sawaed boarded the bus and began to question the passengers heading into Jerusalem. When he reached the back of the bus, Zalbani pulled out the knife and stabbed Sawaed in the head, then attempted to stab the officer in the neck and head multiple more times, according to the indictment.
A civilian security officer who had boarded the bus with Sawaed opened fire at the teen attacker, but one of the shots hit the Border Police officer in the thigh. Zalbani was not hit by the gunfire, and was detained.
Sawaed died en route to the hospital from wounds caused by the stabbing and gunfire.
Zalbani was charged with a terrorist act of aggravated murder, among other charges.
Sawaed, from the northern Bedouin village of Hussniyya, was a noncommissioned officer in the force after completing his mandatory service.
Violence has surged across the West Bank over the past year and a half, with a rise in Palestinian shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and troops, near-nightly arrest raids by the military, and an uptick in revenge attacks by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinians.
