Defending the Families of Terrorists? Shameful.
by Ronn Torossian
On August 23, 2019, a 17-year-old Israeli, Rina Shnerb, was killed by a roadside bomb while hiking with her father and brother. A family went for a hike — and a teenager was killed in an attack that was praised by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. IDF soldiers captured and arrested three terrorists responsible for the attack.
Afterwards, HaMoked, a radical organization funded by the New Israel Fund, filed two petitions in Israeli courts against the demolition of the homes of the terrorists. Israeli courts rejected the petition, and Justice Willner ruled that “given the murderous terror waves Israel has been facing for years … reasonable and proportionate use of the authority to seize and demolish, established in Regulation 119 [of the Defence Emergency Regulation] for deterrence purposes … is a necessity beyond reproach, and constitutes one of the clear expressions of a defensive democracy.”
Justice Melcer asked in the decision, “whether any of the petitioners condemned, even after the fact, the assailants’ actions.” Of the terrorists who committed this act, 44-year-old Samar Mina Salim Arbid had been arrested and served prison sentences for security crimes, including leading riots and building firebombs during the Second Intifada.
The logic of home demolitions is natural — those who act often die and believe they are going to heaven and aren’t deterred by death. But the thought that their family will suffer after their death can change their mind.
Hamas, the PLO, and supporters abroad pay the families of terrorists – and HaMoked spends donor money to fight Israel destroying families’ homes? Shameful. Israeli courts are tied up because supporters of the New Israel Fund want to help the families of terrorists? Do American leaders of the New Israel Fund not understand why Birthright Israel cut all ties with this awful organization in 2014?
The New Israel Fund continues its work as an extremist radical organization well outside the consensus of Jewish life.
Ronn Torossian is an entrepreneur and philanthropist.