Seventy residents of Sderot and other towns bordering the Gaza Strip, filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the Israeli Defense Minister in the Jerusalem District Court. The plaintiffs are demanding that the IDF immediately utilizes the “Nautilus” laser guided, anti-missile system as a defense against Palestinian rocket attacks; “Failing to station the system – forfeiting residents’ lives”.

The lawsuit, which names Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak as defendants, alleges that the “Nautilus” system has the ability to intercept the short-range terrorist rockets in mid-air. To date, the IDF has not  found an effective response to the daily Palestinian rocket barrages targeting Sderot’s civilian population. The residents contend that the failure to utilize the currently available and inexpensive “Nautilus” systems is gross negligence on the government and IDF’s part. They claim the government is not protecting their impoverished city as they would  the more affluent Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. 

The residents are demanding, moreover, that the IDF employ the fully operational “Skyguard” system (based upon the “Nautilus” technology), to ensure that in a two years period at the latest, there is a complete solution for the rocket threat to the entire Sderot-Ashkelon region.

The residents are represented by attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Director of the Shurat HaDin Law Center. It was initiated by Alon Davidi, of the Headquarters for the Safety of Sderot.  In the court papers, the residents – some of whom have lost loved ones or were injured by the Qassam attacks – claim that the “Nautilus” system was proven 100% successful in the 46 experiments that have been held so far. Within these experiments, “Nautilus” shot down short-ranged rockets, artillery shells, and mortar bombs, never once missing the target. The plaintiffs allege that the system, which is currently utilized in the United States, can be put into use and stationed near Sderot within the next 6 months, for the mere sum of $5 million. According to missile experts relied upon by the plaintiffs, an examination of all shooting incidents towards Sderot in the last 6 years shows that would the “Nautilus” have been stationed near the city 6 years ago, there would have been no rockets falling on Sderot whatsoever!

The IDF is currently slated to implement an alternative system, the “Kippat Barzel” (“Iron Dome”) which will only become operational in 2011 and costs approximately $100,000 for each missile.  The Kippat Barzel system can only react to rockets that remain in the air for 15 seconds or longer and is, thus, incapable of intercepting the low flying Qassams in time. 

According to attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: “Leaving the residents of Sderot and the Western Negev settlements to face Hamas rocket shooting for years when there are reliable and available solutions to protect the civilians, is a grave failure and an inconceivable outrage. The border residents will not remain silent in light of their abandonment and discrimination by the government. The families of Sderot, Ashkelon and the towns and kibbutzim bordering the Gaza Strip, and soon hundreds of thousands of other Israelis who live within the range of Hamas’ improved rockets, are entitled to enjoy the same security promised to the residents of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

“The failure to utilize the Nautilus system has resulted in the murder and injuring of dozens of residents of Sderot.  The IDF has completely breached its duty to protect the Negev’s civilians. The lawsuit will expose that the Olmert government has placed its own narrow interests before the safety of the residents of Sderot.”