On July 7, 2016, the High Court of Justice (HCJ)
dismissed a
petition filed by HaMoked against a punitive demolition order issued for a home in Qabatiya, Salfit District. The home belongs to the family of a young man suspected of involvement in an attack on February 3, 2016 near Damascus Gate, in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The justices unanimously decided that the role attributed to the man in planning the attack was sufficient justification to employ Regulation 119 which empowers the military commander to order the demolition of Palestinian homes. The decision was given despite the fact that the man in question did not perpetrate the attack directly and that the homes of the men who did have long since been demolished, after the
HCJ upheld the demolition orders.
The court ruled that the updated report submitted by the state on the level of deterrence house demolitions effect on potential attackers and their families shows that “the substantive evidence [regarding deterrence] far outweighs indications to the opposite”.
The court ruled that the interim order staying execution of the demolition order would expire ten days from the date of the judgment.
