In its response to the High Court of Justice on Wednesday, 11 Elul, the state explained it opposes razing the homes of the convicted murderers of Jerusalem Arab teen Muhmad Abu-Khadir, 16. The petition to the High Court was filed by the family of the victim, claiming that just as the state destroys homes of families of convicted Arab terrorists, the same should be done in this case with the convicted Jewish terrorists.
The families of the victim are demanding the state order the demolition of the homes of the families of Yosef Chaim Ben-David of Geva Binyamin as well as those of the two minors convicted in the case. The state however is opposed, telling the court one cannot compare Arab terrorism to Jewish terrorism as the latter is a rare occurrence and therefore, deterrence in not necessary while the same cannot be said for the former.
The state added that unlike the Arab population, when there is a case involving Jewish terror, such as this one, the community at large and its leaders decry and condemn it, hence, it is not comparable to Arab terror and the response from that community.
The state adds that without trying to lessen in any way the severity of this act or the fatal arson attack against the Darawshe family of Duma, which claimed number of lives, there is still a fundamental difference in Jewish and Arab terrorism.
And the state added that the time element plays a role in this too, stating it has been two years since the heinous act and as a result, the time for razing the home has passed and the IDF cannot carry out such an order at present.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Bad enough they put an innocent person behind bars to please the Arabs and to hush their rioting, they wouldn’t destroy his home too.
One purpose of destruction of the homes of Palestinian terrorists is to perhaps deter their attacks so their families are not left homeless (even if they want to “martyr” themselves). The same deterrent effect would apply to Jewish terrorists who might arguably think twice before committing acts while knowing their families’ homes will be blown up and their parents, brothers and sisters left sitting in the street in the rubble. Both types of terrorism need to be deterred without debating moral equivalence.
Ms. G #2, since there are NO Jewish terrorists and never were any, certainly not Yosef Chaim Ben-David nor any of the guys they grabbed off the street to condemn for the Duma arson, the Israeli court is very much aware of it that all these guys are 100% innocent, hence their homes will not be destroyed.
I’ll leave it to the court to adjudicate guilt/innocence based on the facts; not the unsubstantiated views of some YWN poster who arguably has a predisposition that there are “NO Jewish terrorists”. Perhaps the Palestinian teenager set himself on fire, just as the victims of the ISIS atrocities do.
Ms. G. #4 facts? What facts? Beating up innocent people to confess is no fact and the judges are quite aware of this, hence they would not call them terrorists (like you) and would not destroy their homes.
Count yourself lucky. If you’d be tortured like these poor guys, you’d even confess to bringing down the WTC. Instead of being so bitter and so full of hate and anger on your Jewish brethren as ALL your posts testify, thank Hashem you weren’t in that vicinity for the interrogators to grab and torture you to confess, and pray to Hashem HE shouldn’t judge YOU the way you shamelessly accuse innocent Jews and thrive at their inappropriate sentences.
The PA usually gives money to families of terrorists. Destroying their home is partly meant to counterbalance that.
To #2 – Destruction may prevent Jewish terrorism, but the real question is, how prevalent is that? Does the state need to destroy people’s homes to prevent more terrorism? I’m pretty sure that Jewish terrorism isn’t too rampant.
Additionally, the Arab terrorists are often are killed while attempting to kill others, or blow themselves up, leaving the victims feeling that nobody was “punished”, since the terrorist is dead. In this case, there are people in jail, being punished for the crime. We have a concept in Torah law called – Ein Lo’keh Um’Shalem – he doesn’t get physically hit and in addition pay money – meaning, a single punishment must fit the crime, usually the stronger punishment. Why punish these people double?
Thirdly, the Arab families push their children to terror and encourage it, promote it, and glorify it. Therefore, they are deserving of punishment as well. This was not the case here.
There is ample reason to leave their house in tact and make a clear distinction between Arab terror and this case.
To No. 5
Facts are as follows. You are free to believe that it was all fabricated up by a conspiracy of the Court, the prosecutors, the security forces and the media who reported all of this information in detail.
According to the Court’s records, Yosef Chaim Ben-David, along with two friends, kidnapped a 16-year-old Palestinian from near his home, drove him to the Jerusalem Forest and burned him alive in July 2014. The state officially recognized him as a victim of terror, and that was the determination of the Court.
He was convicted on charges of murder, kidnapping for the purpose of murder, and battery causing bodily harm in April, 2016 after the Court rejected his insanity plea. Before his sentence was delivered, Ben-David sought to apologize for his crime in court, after an attorney from the prosecution noted that he hadn’t expressed remorse. “I apologize for what happened,” Ben-David told the court…. I ask forgiveness of the family for all
that happened.”
Those are the facts as accepted by the Court and the large percentage of Jews in EY. All of the leadership of EY, including virtually all gadolei yisroel who commented on this horrific action, were in agreement. You are free to claim anything you wish. Obviously, for every yid who commits such actions, there may be 100x more terrorist actions by the Arab Terrorists against yidden. But do not ever believe we can tolerate even one such action as “acceptable”
To commenter 3, Arye: Learn some history. Menachem Begin was a Jewish terrorist, who blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1947 – not that there is anything wrong with that. But one side’s terrorists are another side’s freedom fighters. I don’t know the merits of this case, but it does not help us to think there are no Jewish terrorists. And some Jewish terrorists even killed an Israeli prime minister. Pop quiz: name the PM.
And, by the way, the pizza at the King David Hotel these days is the best in Israel.
Oh, so the Arab who killed 13-year-old Hallel is a freedom fighter? You know, this thread is beginning to sound like the UN.
And for the record – Arab terror attacks are not 100x more – they are thousands of xs more!
Pop quiz: list as many incidence of “Jewish terror attacks” as you can on more than your ten fingers (you can include Menachem Begin if you want – LOL). Then, look up the statistics on Arab terror (and those are the just ones that get recorded, there are many more) and do the math.
And here’s another equation: liberalism=anti-semitism (even for so called for so called frum Jews)