Photo Credit: Sliman Khader/FLASH90
The Jerusalem Municipality destroys an illegally built building in Beit Hanina (Archive 2012)

Israel’s High Court on Thursday evening confirmed the demolition of terrorists’ homes, except one: the home of the terrorist who murdered Malachi Rosenfeld in late June, 2015, Army Radio reported. In their ruling, the justices approved the demolition of houses despite arguments that their value as a deterrence was suspect, on the grounds that one cannot expect the state to scientifically prove the effectiveness of home demolitions. Also, the justices noted that confidential information provided to them by the security authorities convinced them sufficiently of the daunting power demolitions may have over potential terrorists.

The family home of the murderer of Malachi Rosenfeld will not be destroyed because it is owned by someone who had no connection to the terrorist or to terrorism. That individual filed a petition with the court to that effect. Instead of demolishing the dwelling, the justices conditioned the revocation of the order on the petitioner’s evacuation of the terrorist’s family members from their apartment by Tuesday, November 17, at 12 noon.

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The late Malachi Rosenfeld’s father, Eliezer, told Army Radio “the court’s decision is most unfortunate. Whomever murdered Malachi planned this for months, I doubt if his family didn’t know about it. The very least would be to punish all those who assisted in this murder and did not condemn it. I’ve not heard any condemnation from the [killer’s] mother.”

Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld, 25, a resident of Kochav Hashachar, and his three friends—who were injured in the attack—were the victims of an organized terrorist cell that was eventually captured in the Binyamin region. Malachi and his friends were returning from a basketball game in a neighboring Jewish enclave when they were shot.

Thirteen years ago, in 2002, Malachi’s eldest brother, a pilot in the IAF, was killed in a jeep accident in the Judean Desert.

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