The High Court of Justice has overturned a demolition order for the home of one of the terrorists convicted in the murder of yeshiva student Dvir Sorek in Gush Etzion in August 2019. This marks the first time the court has blocked the demolition of the home of a convicted terrorist.
"The initial delay, for which no relevant explanation was presented, alongside an examination of the time period as a while, in which the petitioners were left in a cloud of uncertainty about the fate of their home, lead us to conclude that the exercise of the authority to demolish was faulty, thereby justifying the cancellation of the order to confiscate and demolish the dwelling," the ruling explained.
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"We are saying this also in light of the time that elapsed between the time the confiscation and demolition orders for the homes of four other terrorists accused of involvement in the attack and the time the order under discussion was issued, which is several months," the ruling stated.
The court went on to say that the delay in executing the demolition order "obscured" the link between the despicable acts ascribed to the [terrorist] and the sanctions taken in response.
Sorek was murdered in a stabbing attack last summer and his body was discovered near Kibbutz Migdal Oz, in Gush Etzion. His killing was traced to a five-member terrorist cell.
The IDF issued orders to demolish the homes of all the cell members. Four were executed, with the exception of the home of Mahmoud Atouna. The Atouna family petitioned the High Court through the organization Moked: The Center for the Defense of the Individual.
Justices Anat Baron and Uzi Fogelman ruled in favor of the family's petition, with Justice David Mintz voicing a minority opinion against it. Baron wrote that the fact that the terrorist's wife and children were living in the home and the delay in the order being carried out were the reasons why the court had decided to cancel it.
"They are innocent of any crime and uninvolved in the attack, not from the start or retroactively. This in itself causes real concern that the demolition order serves a purely punitive function," Baron wrote.
The Jewish advocacy group Betzalmo, which is representing the Sorek family, said in response to the ruling that "The High Court is responsible for the next murder."
According to Betzalmo, "The High Court ruling is a huge prize for terrorists and terrorism. Unfortunately, this is a wretched ruling that shatters the little remaining deterrence that remains and will lead to another wave of terrorist attacks. Sadly, this is the exact opposite of former Defense Minister Bennett's pursuit of terrorists and demolition of their homes. We will immediately start working to have the matter discussed again, as well as advocating for a law that will forbid the High Court to intervene in matters of security."
Intelligence Services Minister Eli Cohen also addressed the ruling, calling it "infuriating and against the position of the security establishment."
"According to them, an innocent family lived there. Dvir Sorek's family is also innocent," Cohen said, added that he would support a law to establish public hearings for candidates for the Supreme Court judiciary, "so we can know if judges put the interests of terrorists' families before that of the state of Israel."
