The family of a teen who was killed in a police chase a year and a half ago has won a tiny symbolic award of compensation from Israel’s Supreme Court.
The court ordered the State of Israel to pay the family of Ahuvia Sandak NIS 3,000 – approximately $911 – as compensation in the case.
The amount does not even cover the cost of legal fees.
Sandak, 16, was riding with four other teens – all of them “hilltop youth” — in a car being chased through Samaria by Israel Police on December 21, 2020 on suspicion the teens were throwing rocks at Arab vehicles. The claim was never proved.
Settlers Express Outrage After Death of Hilltop Youth
The young victim died after the car was struck by the police vehicle and flipped over, tumbling off the road. Sandak, who was not wearing a seatbelt at the time, was thrown from the car and pinned beneath it.
Attorneys for the Honenu civil rights organization accused the police of intentionally ramming the teens’ vehicle, and protests were held throughout the country. The teens, however, were driving on the wrong side of the road, as is seen in that segment of the below video.
In January 2021, the criminal case against the four police officers involved in the tragedy was closed by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
One month later, the state prosecutor’s office announced the four teens who were riding with Sandak when he was killed were to be indicted on charges of “acts of terrorism” along with aggravated intentional property damage, throwing stones at vehicles, deliberate damage to vehicles on the basis of ethnicity and driving without a license.
