On October 29, 2015, the High Court of Justice (HCJ) heard eleven
petitions against demolition orders issued by the military for six homes belonging to relatives of Palestinians who committed or are suspected of having committed attacks on Israelis. Ten of the petitions were filed by HaMoked and one by a private lawyer. Six of the petitions were filed on behalf of the families and five on behalf of neighbors or home owners.
At the hearing, the justices criticized the state for the length of time that elapsed between the attack and the issuance of the demolition order coupled with the very strict time frame it imposes on the petitioners: “You [the State] put the whole system under pressure, and after a judgment is issued, you change”, in the words of Justice Melcer. Therefore, the court ordered the state to provide it with a list of judgments it had issued on house demolitions, which includes, inter alia, the dates of the attacks and the dates on which the orders were executed. The state was also ordered to list the cases in which it had delayed execution of the orders and provide the reasons for the delay. The lists were to be submitted to the court by 10:00 A.M. on November 2, 2015.
The court issued a
decision that the hearing of these petitions had been held as if “an order nisi had been issued”. The state was given the opportunity to submit a supplementary response by 10:00 A.M. on November 2, 2015. The court ordered the state to attach to its supplementary response a detailed list of cases of demolition orders against which petitions were filed and rejected that were not executed shortly after the judgment was issued – dating back to 2013. The court also instructed the state to submit the admissions collected from the three suspects in the killing of Mr. and Mrs. Hankin, and said the state would be able to provide more details about the evidence substantiating the suspects’ guilt, if it wishes to do so. The state was requested to provide details with respect to the six homes slated for demolition to avoid any errors. HaMoked was given leave to respond to the state’s supplementary response until 10:00 A.M. on November 5, 2015.
