Center for the Defence of the Individual - State clings to its position: “it is impossible to settle for just a partial demolition of the terrorist’s apartment”
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
10.11.2015

State clings to its position: “it is impossible to settle for just a partial demolition of the terrorist’s apartment”

On October 21, 2015, the High Court of Justice (HCJ) heard HaMoked’s petition against the military’s intended punitive demolition of a residence in the Askar Refugee Camp in Nablus. In the hearing, the justices sternly criticized the state for stalling for about a year after the attack (perpetrated November 10, 2014) until it issued the demolition order (on October 3, 2015). HaMoked also noted that the suspected assailant was a single man who lived in his parents’ home, and that in such cases, the practice was to only demolish or seal the assailant’s own room rather than the whole apartment. At the start of the hearing, the justices unequivocally advised the state to reduce the scope of the order.

After the state notified the court that it rejected the justices’ advice, the court issued an order nisi on October 29, 2015, and instructed the state to submit within seven days its response as to the partial demolition of the apartment – inter alia, because of the delayed issuance of the demolition order.

On November 9, 2015, the state submitted its response, asking the court to revoke the order nisi and dismiss the petition. The state asked that its earlier responses in these proceedings be considered an integral part of the present submission; therefore, the state noted, its current response addressed only the issue of delay. The state argued that the decision to issue a demolition order for the assailant’s family home in Askar had been formulated in July 2015, and that the order had been delivered only on October 3, 2015 “due to operative reasons, and without connection to the events in recent weeks”. The state also asserted that in the past, the court had discussed such cases where there was a substantial gap between the date of the attack and the date of the demolition order, and that the gap in this case did not “justify reaching a different judicial result”. Finally, the state reiterated its stance whereby “in order to carry out actions for deterring future potential terrorists … it is not possible to settle for just a partial demolition of the terrorist’s apartment”.

The petition is scheduled for a hearing before Justices Rubinstein, Zylbertal and Mazuz on November 11, 2015, at 16:00.

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