IDF soldiers at the scene of the attack in Barkan
IDF soldiers at the scene of the attack in BarkanFlash 90

The military court in Samaria convicted the mother of the terrorist who committed the shooting at the Barkan Industrial Zone for failing to prevent the attack.

The court decision states that "in this case, the value of human life prevails over family ties."

The mother was accused of knowing about her son's intentions to carry out an attack and not taking any action to stop him. The mother heard her son practicing shooting near their home, and later he told her that he had grown tired of his life and intended to become a martyr. He went on to murder two people in the attack last October, Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi.

The terrorist warned his mother that the army might search their house, and the mother updated her husband. In addition, the mother tried to warn her son, but did not give notice to anyone and did not act in a reasonable manner to prevent the murder.

The judge quoted in her decision an article by Prof. Kremnitzer: "In a reality where suicidal terrorism is not a rare sight, it is difficult to assume that the ruling was prepared to exempt from criminal liability a person (including a relative) who suspects another plotting to carry out a suicide bombing attack, refrains from clarifying the suspicion and refrains from reporting it. The freedom of action, the discomfort, and the psychic difficulty of the suspect? Does the value of life of the victims not exceed the freedom of action, the discomfort, and the psychological difficulty of the suspect?"

The judge explained that "it is not possible to be content with an act that is not verbal and cannot prevent the planned offense. An act that has a real potential to prevent the offense is required, and this action must be external to the offense planner. In other words, it is not enough to try to convince the perpetrator of the offense to stop his actions or warning."

At the end of her decision, the judge wrote: "The actions of the defendant who warned her son and reported to the father did not have the real strength to prevent those who were threatened to lose their lives, an attack on Israelis, or the use of a weapon in order to carry out his plot. Moreover, the defendant did not ask the father to take the son's weapon or report it, and did not check with him what he had done about it ... She did not act in a reasonable manner to prevent the execution of her son's plot, and therefore must be convicted of the offense."

Attorney Haim Bleicher of the Honenu legal organization, which represents the families of the victims, said: "The court convicted the mother of the terrorist beyond any doubt that she knew that the terrorist planned to carry out an attack and trained for it. She did not do what she had to do to stop it, and even when she told him not to carry out the attack it was due to fear for her home. The family members who raised the terrorist are part of this story. They do not regret what happened, because they do not care about the deaths of Jews."

In addition, Attorney Bleicher appealed to the court to increase its sentence: "We need to fight here, to fight terror, and we think the court will have to institute a more severe punishment because the punishment means saving lives for all of us. This is the only way to stop it."

"We will also be able to pay damages to the families, and later [we will convict] the father of the terrorist and his brother, and so on," he added.

"We are happy that they convicted the mother of the terrorist and hope that the punishment she will receive will be in accordance with the conviction," said Rafi Levengrund, the father of Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel. "She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was guilty, that she had not prevented a crime. She knew exactly what her son was about to do. We will sue her for damages, too, for all the damage she has done."

"We also want to demand the house, so that they will not demolish the house but that it will pass to us, with its land, as well as the money that the State of Israel transfers to the Palestinian Authority and Abu Mazen (Abbas) distributes to these families."