A bill to deny legal representation to foreign terrorists paid by Israeli taxpayers was submitted to the Knesset on Wednesday by Likud MK Dan Illouz, Israel’s KAN News public broadcaster reported.
“The current situation in which the State of Israel is called upon to finance the legal representation of the Nukhba terrorists is unfathomable,” Illouz said in a statement.
“This is an absurdity and a serious legal malpractice. The State of Israel will not fund defense for those who massacred us on the seventh of October. We will not help it in any way.”
The Knesset Constitution Committee is set to discuss the issue next week, according to the report.
“During discussions in the committee, I proposed two alternatives – either the Palestinian Authority would finance the protection of the terrorists or they would receive special defenders on behalf of the state,” committee chair Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman said.
“Unfortunately, in the discussions that have taken place so far on the subject, a false representation was made, when in fact judges gave decisions on the representation of terrorists which could mean imposing the appropriate cost of representation on the state treasury and at the expense of the victims.”
The bill denies state-funded legal representation for terrorists who are not citizens or residents of Israel accused of terrorism. It came in response to a decision by Israel’s Supreme Court directing the state to pay for a defense attorney for the Hamas Nukhba terrorists who attacked Israel on October 7 and thereafter.
Religious Zionism party chair and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich strongly condemned the decision, calling it a “loss of values” and vowing Israeli citizens would not be forced to pay for the legal defense of their enemies. “Never, and especially in this period of challenging fiscal issues, when we are required to scrape our budgetary sources from the threshing floor and from the winery for the myriad needs of Israeli society,” Smotrich wrote in a letter.
“The law requires the representation of a defense attorney in order to hold a detainee hearing,” said a spokesperson for the court. “Since these are hearings that take place in a visual committee, several judicial decisions were given to appoint a private defense attorney and finance the fees from the state treasury.
“The administrator of the courts turned to the Ministry of Justice for the purpose of examining the manner in which the judicial decisions are implemented and finding budgetary source, and the issue is still under consideration,” the court spokesperson said.
