Top court okays razing of terrorist’s apartment after killing of US-Israeli man

The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out an appeal by the family of a teenage Palestinian terrorist against the demolition of his top-floor apartment in their home, which was ordered as a punishment over his fatal West Bank terror attack.

Supreme Court President Esther Hayut ruled against any further delay in carrying out the punitive measure, which was ordered in response to the stabbing death of American-Israeli Ari Fuld in September 2018, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

The Israel Defense Forces has twice notified the family of the terrorist, 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin, that it planned to destroy the apartment in which he lived, but implementation was delayed after the family filed appeals.

The military order allows army engineers to fill the top floor of the family’s three-story building with concrete and barbed wire in order to seal it off.

Following the court decision, the demolition can now be carried at any time, Kan reported.

Jabarin’s family home is located in the town of Yatta, near Hebron. Security forces mapped out the apartment for demolition the day after the September 16, 2018, stabbing attack.

On November 27, the family was given a week to appeal the decision with the military, which it did. That appeal was rejected in December. The same month the IDF issued another notification and the family then appealed that too.

Jabarin stabbed Fuld, a father of four, multiple times in the back and neck as he was standing outside a supermarket near the Gush Etzion Junction in the central West Bank. After he was stabbed, Fuld pursued and shot his assailant as the man attempted to attack a shop employee, possibly saving her life. He then collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, but succumbed to his wounds.

Israel generally razes the homes of Palestinian terrorists who commit attacks in which people are killed or seriously injured. The government defends the measure as an effective means of discouraging future attacks, though it has been criticized by human rights groups as a form of collective punishment and by some analysts as an ineffective deterrent measure.

In Jabarin’s case, it appeared as though his family had attempted to prevent him from carrying out the deadly attack. The IDF said Jabarin’s mother had gone to the Meitar checkpoint in the southern West Bank and warned soldiers, at approximately the same time the stabbing took place, that her son planned to commit an attack.

Jabarin, who was shot by Fuld and another armed civilian at the scene, was taken to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in moderate condition with multiple gunshot wounds, hospital officials said at the time.

In October, prosecutors at a West Bank military court charged him with intentionally causing death — the military court’s equivalent of murder — along with a number of lesser charges.

Fuld, a well-known Israel advocate and right-wing activist, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Distinction — the third-highest award that can be granted by the Israel Police.