The High Court of Justice on Monday ordered to halt the planned razing of the family home of a Palestinian charged with the killing of an IDF soldier by dropping a block on his head from the building’s roof earlier this year.
Nizmi Abu Bakr, 49, was charged in June with the killing of 21-year-old Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Yigal by throwing a brick that fatally hit him over the head during an operation in the West Bank village of Yabed.
Justices Menachem Mazuz and George Karra reasoned their ruling by stating that Abu Bakr’s wife and eight children, who were not involved in the attack, still live there.
The court instead allowed the military to seal up just one room of the apartment where Abu Bakr lives.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted in response that the ruling was “a sad decision by the High Court that refused our request to destroy the home of the terrorist who killed IDF soldier Amit Ben-Yigal, who was an only child."
“I demand to hold an additional hearing with an expanded panel [of judges],” Netanyahu tweeted. “My policy as prime minister is to destroy the homes of terrorists, and I intend to continue with it.”
Lamenting the court's decision, Ben-Yigal's father Baruch told Ynet that, "the judges made a mistake, this is a wrong and unjust decision."
"I'm not looking for revenge because I don't need it, it's merely a matter of deterrence, which this decision lacks."
Speaking from his son's gravesite, Baruch said: "I told my son about this unjust verdict. It's not fair to look at the Palestinians and not me, what about my pain? Does it mean nothing to them? I've become a miserable man, my only son is dead. This verdict is humiliating to our soldiers today."