Israeli High Court Okays Razing Home of 13-year-old Palestinian Who Stabbed Police Officer
The bus where the boy, identified by the initials M.Z., stabbed an Israeli Border Police officer in February
Nir Hasson writes in Haaretz
The High Court of Justice issued its approval on Thursday to demolish the home of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who had stabbed an Israeli Border Police officer at the Shoafat checkpoint outside Jerusalem in February.
Justices Alex Stein and Gila Canfy Steinitz rejected a petition against the demolition decision, which was filed by the human rights group HaMoked Center for the Defense of the Individual. Justice Uzi Vogelman, in a minority opinion, opposed the demolition due to the boy’s young age.
Relatives of the boy had claimed at a hearing held on Monday that they did not know that the boy intended to carry out the attack, and were therefore unable to prevent it.
On February 13, the boy – identified by the initials M.Z. – brought a knife on a bus that passed through the Shoafat checkpoint. When Border Police officer Asil Suaad arrived to inspect the bus, the boy stabbed him in the neck. A civilian guard who was next to the officer fired at M.Z., but mistakenly hit Suaad, who bled to death from the gunshot wound.
The boy was charged with murder and was taken to a designated locked residence in accordance with Israeli law, which rules that a minor under the age of 14 may not be sent to prison or detention. His trial is still ongoing. In June, Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo ordered the demolition of the boy’s family home in the Shoafat refugee camp.
In the court’s ruling, Justice Stein rejected the claim that the house should not be destroyed due to the boy’s age, and argued that the focus should be on how the home demolition would deter the parents of future would-be attackers. While he acknowledged the boy’s young age, he added that “the way he acted is characteristic of an uninhibited adult criminal who came to kill and knew how to kill.” Stein also rejected the argument that the demolition constituted collective punishment, and compared it to the harm that the family of a financial criminal would suffer if their house were confiscated.
Justice Canfy Steinitz concurred with Stein’s opinion, but added that the decision was made against the background of Israel’s tense security situation. “It is possible that in the old days, this [boy’s age] would have tipped the scales” in his favor, she said.
“However, these days are not the same, attack follows attack, and for a long time we have been in the midst of a wave of murderous terrorism that claims the lives of dozens of people, members of the security forces and innocent civilians, tears apart families, and targets the elderly, adults and children. Unfortunately, terror attacks by minors are not a rare sight either,” the justice continued.
“Despite the young age of the attacker, and taking into account all the circumstances as detailed in the opinion of my fellow justice [Alex Stein] … I do not believe that his decision exceeds the limits of proportionality to the extent that justifies judicial intervention.”
In the minority opinion, Justice Vogelman wrote that he believes the court should have issued a conditional order preventing the demolition due to the boy’s age and the time that passed between the attack and the Home Front Command’s decision to destroy the house. Vogelman also gave weight to the fact that the state does not claim the parents knew about their son’s intentions, or that they could have prevented him from carrying out the attack.
Justice Vogelman also pointed to the boy’s young age, and said that “there is a difference between someone who is 13-and-a-half years old and someone who is 17 years old.” The state’s representative, however, argued that M.Z.’s young age actually strengthens the decision to destroy the house, because at such an age parents hold greater influence over their children, which reinforces the idea that it is important to deter the families.
The discussion at the High Court focused on the Palestinian boy’s young age. To date, the punitive measure of razing a home has never been wielded for a terror suspect younger than 15.
M.Z.’s father, who was questioned by the Shin Bet security service after the attack, told his interrogators that the boy had been impacted by the death of a boy named Salah Mohammed Ali, also from Shoafat. Mohammed Ali was killed accidentally by police officers who were demolishing the home of Udai Tamimi, who had killed Noa Lazar, an 18-year-old soldier. That boy died two weeks before M.Z. stabbed Suad, 22.
HaMoked CEO Jessica Montell responded: “It is a shame that the Supreme Court approved the demolition of a house under circumstances begging to refrain from doing so: a 13-year-old boy who did not actually kill anyone, and acted impulsively without any possibility of intervention of his parents.”
She referred to the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul efforts, adding that “some say a [judicial] coup is not needed for a court to fail to protect Palestinians’ human rights. This verdict shows that, unfortunately, there is truth to that claim.”
This article is reproduced in its entirety.