Center for the Defence of the Individual - The HCJ dismissed the motion for further hearing before an expanded panel in the public petition against punitive home demolitions: Court President Naor ruled that “this petition, at the time it was filed, was not the optimal vehicle for the applicants’ arguments…”
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
15.11.2015

The HCJ dismissed the motion for further hearing before an expanded panel in the public petition against punitive home demolitions: Court President Naor ruled that “this petition, at the time it was filed, was not the optimal vehicle for the applicants’ arguments…”

On January 15, 2015, HaMoked, heading a number of Israeli human rights organizations, submitted a motion for further hearing before an expanded panel in the public petition against the policy of punitive home demolition, which the court had rejected on December 31, 2014. The organizations asserted, inter alia, that the petition’s core arguments – that this measure constituted collective punishment and the destruction of protected persons’ property, both prohibited under international law – had never been rigorously reviewed by the court, including in this judgment, and that the issue and its repercussions were of the outmost importance and gravity.

On November 12, 2015, Justice Naor rejected the motion, ruling that “the proceeding of further hearing is not designed for renewed discussion of matters not addressed in the judgment”, and hence, it “is not the appropriate setting for presenting such arguments”. Justice Naor said that “In the judgment subject of the motion herein, the Court did not see fit to revisit the precedent on house demolitions given the fact that it was upheld in two judgments issued shortly beforehand”. Still, Naor reaffirmed that “the issue of house demolition does raise ‘difficult questions’ and sometimes also ‘moral dilemmas”, and that therefore “it is always necessary to examine – both generally and in the circumstances of each and every case – whether the demolition of the home is proportionate”.

The decision was issued at the same time as the judgment on the petitions against the military’s demolition orders for six homes in the West Bank.

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