Dichter Orders Yeshiva Killer's House Destroyed

by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima) gave the police an order Wednesday to destroy the home of the family of the terrorist who murdered eight yeshiva students last Thursday night. The order came after six days of deliberations and legal consultations.

The home can only be torn down after the OC (Officer in Charge of) Central Command signs an order to that effect. Sources in the Ministry for Public Security said that Dichter decided to act in the matter of the house because he was concerned by the fact that it was nearly a week since the massacre, and still no action was taken against the terrorist's family's home.

However, according to Hebrew news site Nfc, the legal aspects of a decision to raze the home are still being examined. The police have reportedly turned to the Ministry of Defense to get more information about the legal process required for tearing down the house or sealing its doors and windows. Dichter said that without the legal basis for razing the house, "nothing can be done."

Saar scoffs
"There is no more fitting instance than this incident for using this authority," Bam noted.

Earlier in the day, Dichter was under fire in the Knesset for not tearing down the mourning tent outside the family's house. Dichter said that the law allows tearing down the tent only if there is proof that it serves as a base for terror activity. Likud MK Gideon Saar scoffed at the delay, pointing out the terrorist's father has also been arrested and that posters praising the killer adorned the mourning tent. Jordan prohibited the establishment of a mourning tent in its country for the terrorist, but Israel allowed the tent in eastern Jerusalem to remain standing.

Immediately after the Thursday massacre, the Legal Forum demanded that the house be torn down and insisted that the action was perfectly legal. The forum's legal representative, Attorney Yitzchak Bam, explained in a letter to the IDF that according to Provision 119 of the Provisions for Defense in a Time of Emergency, which date back to the pre-1948 British Mandate era, the IDF OC Major General in charge of an area may order, after allowing a hearing for the people involved, the destruction of a terrorist's house. "There is no more fitting instance than this incident for using this authority," Bam noted.

Precedent exists
The High Court allowed the a home demolition in a similar case several years ago, when the IDF OC Central Command ordered the destruction of the home of a terrorist who massacred 22 people, including babies, in Jerusalem's Bus No. 2. The terrorist's family petitioned the High Court against the demolition order, but the High Court rejected the petition. The judges, Eliyahu Matza, Edmond Levi and Esther Chayut, wrote: "It appears that the terror groups are making increasing use of residents of eastern Jerusalem because the resident permit which they possess makes it easy for them to reach Israel's population centers without arousing suspicion.

"Assisting in the cold blooded murder of innocents is a very serious deed," the judges wrote. "It justifies very serious [counter] measures."