Israel’s High Court of Justice on Monday canceled a decision to demolish the home of a Palestinian accused of killing a soldier, in a ruling condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a number of right-wing ministers.
Netanyahu called it a “miserable decision” on Twitter and demanded a new high court hearing, with a larger panel of judges.
Minister of Regional Cooperation Ofir Akunis described the court's ruling as “disgraceful,” adding that judges who issued it should be ashamed of themselves.
Likud Coalition Chairman Miki Zohar, for his part, said judges have put Israel’s national interest at the bottom of their priority list.
The case dated back to May, when the Israeli occupation forces raided Yaabad village, near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, to carry out massive arrests using force and brutality and clashed with the residents.
Nizmi Abu Bakr, 49, was charged in June with the killing of 21-year-old Amit Ben-Yigal by dropping a block on his head from the building’s roof.
Abu Bakr was able to hide for several weeks and was arrested in June. He was charged with premeditated murder, and the sentence is expected to be life imprisonment, although he denies it.
According to Palestinian sources, the prisoner has been suffering harsh interrogation conditions since his arrest and is put in a cell that lacks the minimum basic requirements for human beings.
He is not allowed to go outside for fresh air, and he was prevented from meeting with a lawyer for more than two weeks, sourced added.
The occupation authorities were not satisfied with all these means of suffering and decided to demolish the three-floor building in which Abu Bakr and his family live.
Abu Bakr family members appealed the demolition order, stressing that “the punitive demolition of the house constitutes an unacceptable collective punishment that is inconsistent with international humanitarian and human rights law and is inconsistent with Israeli criminal law.”
The building is owned by Abu Bakr’s brother and houses several families, including women and children, they wrote in their petition.
Judges 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 the apartment where Abu Bakr lives.