Israeli Supreme Court: Parents Of Juvenile Who Commits Terror Attacks Can Receive His Allowances

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In yet another example of the lengths to which the Israeli Supreme Court is willing to go in interpreting Israel’s basic laws, the court struck down an amendment to the National Insurance Law which would prevent parents from receiving allowances of a juvenile serving time in jail for security offenses. The judges, in a 5-4 majority decision, said that the law causes inordinate harm to the right for equality.

Despite this, the judges did not order an immediate cancellation of the amendment but rather gave a period of time to the Knesset to fix the law.

The 2015 amendment states that in a case where a juvenile has been found guilty of a serious security offense such as stonethrowing which was performed from nationalistic motives or as part of terror activity and the juvenile has been jailed for his actions, his parents will cease to receive National Insurance allowances for the duration of his prison sentence.

The Arab leftist organization Adallah had petitioned the court against the amendment. The state responded that “incentifying parents is designed to prevent their children from perpetrating such crimes….a strict and specified approach to nationalist crimes is not unique to this law and is to be found in many other laws.”

In response to the Supreme Court ruling, MK Itamar Ben-Gvir (Religious Zionism) said that “the court is continuing to rule with obtuseness, with its judges sitting in their offices and detached from the public. Stones can kill even if a juvenile threw them. The first step which could act as a deterrent for them is if they lost their allowances. A juvenile who throws a stone must know that there’s a price for his dangerous action and the parents have responsibility for him.”

Ben-Gvir added that “we will continue struggling for a reform in the judicial system so that it will rule in favor of the Jewish nation and not in favor of its enemies.”