The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office has filed a preliminary damages claim against the estate of a terrorist in District Court for financial damages caused to the state by the departed terrorist’s attack, Ha’aretz reported Sunday. This is the first in a series of similar suits to be filed against the estates of terrorists.
The first lawsuit was filed a week and a half ago against the estate of Fadi Al-Qanbar, who, in early January 2017, killed four IDF soldiers in a ramming attack at Armon Hanatziv. The state demands that the estate pay out compensations for damages caused by the terrorist murderer, including the construction of four tombstones for his victims and payments to the bereaved families. According to the lawsuit, the estimated cost for each victim is roughly half a million dollars.
The official PA daily referred to the attack as “a car ramming operation,” stating that the killer “died as a Shahid” (i.e., a Martyr who died for Allah). By calling the terrorist murderer a Shahid, the PA was telling its people that murdering the Israeli youths was sanctioned by Islam and seen as positive Islamic behavior [source: Palestinian Media Watch].
The state has already taken steps earlier against the murderer’s family members, including sealing up their home and suing to revoke their residency status, which will result in their exile to the Palestinian Authority.
“This is a decision that marks a new era in our fight against terror,” Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said in a press release immediately after the January attack. “From now on, anyone who plotted, planned or contemplated carrying out an attack will know that their family would pay a heavy price for their heinous act.”
The Prosecution’s move was attacked by Dalia Kirstein, Director General of HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, renowned, among other acts of protecting individuals, for its anti-Israel report to Goldstone Commission, which completely ignored Hamas’ role in launching the 2012 Gaza War.
“The Al-Qanbar family is the subject of a campaign of revenge on the part of the establishment after the attack perpetrated by the family member,” Kirstein said. “Now his widow and their four orphans are being sued for damages, and must indemnify the state for its damage and expenses due to the attack. It may be legal, but it is completely evil, vindictive and ugly.”
Yes, absolutely – also completely proportionate, as is attested by the graves of four young Israelis whose entire crime was to be standing on a Jerusalem sidewalk on a sunny January afternoon. For once, Israel is abandoning its need to be loved in favor of its goal of being feared. We’d like to see more of that.
Incidentally, according to NGO monitor, in 2014 HaMoked received $1.775 million from the EU, Belgium, Finland, France, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, the Ford Israel Fund, and the New Israel Fund.