Outcry at Knesset as bereaved parents protest plans to fund legal defense of Hamas terrorists
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Bereaved parents vocally object to the state funding the legal defense of Hamas terrorists during a heated debate in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice committee.
“If someone here supports legal representation for terrorists stand up. If not let’s end the discussion,” right-wing news site Israel National News quotes Itzik Bonzel, who lost his son Amit during the fighting in Gaza, as declaring during the hearing.
“It’s a shame for the people of Israel that this discussion is being held over our children’s blood. There’s no way that the murdered victims will fund the Nukhba terrorists’ legal representation,” he says.
Bonzel also complains that lawmakers delayed arriving at the hearing in order to avoid hearing from him and other bereaved parents.
“This isn’t stupidity, this is deliberate evil against our people,” states Galia Hoshen, who lost her daughter Hadar on October 7. “My daughter was murdered and I have to fund legal representation for those who murdered her?”
The committee is debating a bill to prohibit the Public Defender’s Office’s from providing legal representation to those defined by law as illegal combatants.
Last week, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich both harshly condemned the Israel Courts Administration over its request for funding for legal representation for captured combatants suspected of carrying out the October 7 atrocities in southern Israel.
Their comments came after it emerged that courts dealing with Palestinian detainees captured during the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza ruled that the prisoners needed legal representation when appearing before them.
Since the Public Defender’s Office has refused to represent these detainees, who are among the approximately 2,000 suspected Palestinian terrorists caught inside Israel or in Gaza since October 7, the courts ordered that they be given private counsel in accordance with Israeli law, which also stipulates that funding for such legal representation come from the state.
