Israeli leaders bad-mouth Israeli High Court of Justice
Attorneys at the Supreme Court, which also sits as the Israeli High Court of Justice, in Jerusalem on May 3, 2020. (Yossi Zamir/Pool)
by Kathryn Shihadah
The Israeli High Court of Justice has handed down two decisions in recent weeks that the state’s leaders have subsequently opposed in the strongest of terms. The rulings found in favor of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation – something that rarely happens in Israel.
Home demolition policy
Israeli government policy has for years required that Palestinian “terrorists” not only face military court and long sentences, but they also endure the demolition of their families’ homes. Israeli officials justify the practice as a form of “deterrence.”
Human rights organizations like the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD), HaMoked, and B’Tselem have tracked home demolition for years. They emphasize that the practice is a form of collective punishment in violation of both international and Israeli law.
Jessica Montell of HaMoked adds that it is also a violation of ancient Jewish law: “you don’t punish the son for the sins of the father.”
The High Court
The Israeli High Court of Justice (IHCJ) “exercises judicial review over the other branches of government” and has authority "in matters in which it considers it necessary to grant relief in the interests of justice.”
For the most part, the Court upholds the practices of the 53-year Israeli occupation, but occasionally it accommodates Palestinian human rights. Israeli leaders, and the Israeli population in general, tend to discredit these rulings.
Exhibit A: one Palestinian family avoids homelessness
In August, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled on a case involving a Palestinian man who had allegedly killed an Israeli soldier.
On May 12, 2020, a battalion of Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles invaded a Palestinian town before dawn – a routine and usually illegal experience for Palestinians – conducting violent, invasive searches of a number of homes, shooting some residents with rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gassing others.
The soldiers abducted at least eighteen Palestinians, including some children.
Among those assaulted were members of the Abu Bakar family.
As the raid wound down, 49-year-old Nizmi Abu Bakar dropped a large stone on the head of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Amit Ben Ygal from a rooftop. Ygal died not long after.
The purpose of the raid was to find and detain two Palestinians suspected of “terrorism,” and two others suspected of “throwing stones” during a previous invasion.
Regardless of the legality of the invasion (and of the occupation), Nizmi Abu Bakar has not been charged with the killing, only indicted. But the IDF prepared to carry out the standard home demolition.
Abu Bakar’s family petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to intervene. The Court called for the home demolition to be cancelled, declaring that it would be “unreasonable” to make Abu Bakar’s innocent wife and eight children homeless.
Home demolition in East Jerusalem
Politicians’ reactions
Despite calls by the United Nations, the European Union, and human rights groups around the world to stop the illegal practice – and despite the IHCJ decision – Israeli politicians insist that home demolitions must continue.
Prime Minister Netanyahu called the verdict “a miserable ruling” and stated, “my policy as prime minister is to destroy the homes of terrorists, and I intend to continue with it.”
Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich declared that the IHCJ decision was based on “distorted morality,” and proved that “property rights of terrorists and their families are more important to [the judges] than all our [Israeli] lives.”
Yariv Levin, Knesset Speaker, added, “[Is this] the High Court of Justice or the hall of warped morality?...We will continue to fight until we bring back morality and justice to the court.”
Matan Peleg of the Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu called on Israeli leaders to “disregard the High Court’s ruling and immediately demolish the home of the terrorist.”
Israelis unhappy with the decision also protested outside the home of the Chief Justice for imposing a “judicial dictatorship.”
Outposts in the West Bank
Also this month, the IHCJ overturned a Jerusalem District Court ruling regarding the Israeli outpost of Mitzpeh Kramim.
Outposts are considered illegal even by Israel, as they are built on Palestinian land without Israeli government permission – unlike settlements, which are illegally built on Palestinian land with Israeli government permission (but not permission from the Palestinian owners).
Exhibit B: Israeli squatters ordered off Palestinian land
The Mitzpeh Kramim outpost was founded in 1999 with approval from the World Zionist Organization (WZO) Settlement Division.
In 2011, when Palestinians who owned the land petitioned the IHCJ for the Israeli settlers to be removed.
In 2018 the IHCJ ruled that although the land belonged to Palestinians, the WZO and Israeli government had handed over the land to the settlers “in good faith” – not maliciously or on purpose – and the outpost could stay.
However, it was later revealed that the WZO had known the land belonged to Palestinians, and that certain officials had ignored “many warning signs.” The property where Mitzpeh Kramim was built was prohibited for Israeli use – even under Israel’s settler-friendly property laws. (In fact, according to international law, all occupied territories are prohibited for settlement by occupiers.)
Last month, with this new evidence, the IHCJ overturned its own earlier decision. The land must be returned to the Palestinian owners. The settlers have three years to relocate.
The illegal outpost of Mitzpe Kramim. (Gideon Mermelstein)
Politicians’ reactions
Netanyahu issued a statement in the light of this ruling:
I’m saddened by the High Court’s wrong decision ordering the evacuation of Mitzpe Karmim...We will do everything possible to keep the residents where they are, and are convinced that we will succeed in this.
Knesset Member and former Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett called the ruling “outrageous,” with “neither logic nor justice.”
Another Knesset member, Matan Kahana, added, “Only a heart of stone and hostility to settlement [of] the land could lead to this ruling...The High Court has become the defender of terrorists’ homes and destroyer of Jewish homes.”
Others have vowed to spend the next three years overturning the ruling or legislating it away.
Whether it is a family about to become homeless, or a landowner who wants what is rightfully his – or a thousand other avoidable human tragedies, Israel’s leaders consistently demonstrate disregard for the lives of Palestinians.