IDF asked to destroy balcony used to throw stones
Following stone throwing incident at Jewish worshipers returning from Cave of the Patriarchs, legal aid organization Honenu demands IDF destroy balcony from which stones were supposedly thrown.
The legal aid organization Honenu submitted a relatively unusual request a few days ago to IDF Central Command Chief, Maj. Gen. Roni Numa, seeking to demolish the balcony of a Palestinian home in Hebron, from which stones were supposedly thrown at Jewish worshipers.
About a month ago, on Friday evening, when several Jewish worshipers returned from the Cave of the Patriarchs to Kiryat Arba, stones were thrown at them from the balcony of one of the houses where a Palestinian lives.
As a result of the stone-throwing, a 16-year-old boy's eye was injured, requiring medical treatment and his hospitalization for several days.
At the end of the event, the worshipers were rescued by IDF forces.
Following the incident, attorney Haim Bleicher of the Zionist legal aid organization Honenu sent a precedent-setting demand to Numa to destroy the balcony, which he claims was built illegally.
"In 2012, I appealed to the Hebron Brigade commander against the construction of the said balcony," wrote Bleicher, who added that the balcony was built despite the Hebron Agreement, which stipulates that a special construction permit is required to build at a height of over 6 in a building that oversees a street junction.
Bleicher added that "the balcony oversees the junction at a strategic point where people travel from the direction of the Cave (of the Patriarchs) towards Kiryat Arba. The security risk posed by the balcony is obvious.
"On August 12, an Arab crowd gathered on nearby roofs and on the balcony and stoned groups of Jews who had returned from praying in the Cave of the Patriarchs. The destruction of the balcony will be an appropriate response to the event and will reduce the risk posed by it."
Since the letter was sent, the organization has yet to receive a response.
