In a split decision, the High Court of Justice has nixed the planned demolition of the home of a Palestinian who has been charged with the killing of IDF soldier 21-year-old Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Ygal earlier this year.
The court instead permits the army only to seal up one room of the apartment where 49-year-old Nazmi Abu Bakr lived.
Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Ygal, who was killed when a rock was thrown at his head during an arrest raid in the northern West Bank village of Yabed on May 12, 2020. (Social media)
In the prevailing decision, judges Menachem Mazuz and George Karra reason that Abu Bakr’s wife and eight children, who were not involved in the attack, still live there.
The ruling is pilloried by politicians from the right, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who calls it a “terrible decision.”
“I demand another hearing with a wider bench,” he says in a statement posted on his Twitter account. “We can’t give terror wind at its back. My policy as prime minister is to destroy terrorists’ houses and I plan to continue doing so.”
— Stuart Winer
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