Lubarsky family
Lubarsky familyEliran Aharon

The trial of the terrorist Islam Naji, who murdered IDF soldier Ronen Lubarsky last year, began at the Ofer military court Wednesday.

The incident occurred in May, 2018, during an operation of the Duvdevan unit in the al-Am'ari refugee camp. The terrorist threw a marble slab on Lubarsky's head and critically wounded him. Lubarsky died two days later.

Last December, the security forces demolished the four-story building in the al-Am'ari camp where the terrorist's family lived. The IDF initially informed the family that it had been decided to demolish two floors of the building, but after further investigation it was decided to demolish all four floors of the building, after it became clear that the terrorist's family had built the building on a plot that had been demolished by the IDF in 1990 in response to an attack carried out by the terrorist's brother.

At the beginning of the trial, Lubarsky's family reiterated their request to impose the death penalty on the terrorist, but the Military Advocate General's Office did not bring this request before the court.

"The time has come for the Military Advocate General's Office to stop being afraid and demand that the lowly terrorist be sentenced to death," said Vladimir Lubarsky, Ronen's father, a member of the Forum of the Bereaved Families. "We will not demand less than that. Only a hard hand in fighting terror will save lives."

"It is a serious mistake on the part of the State of Israel to grant our declared enemies the right to be tried instead of killing them," he said, adding that "the implementation of deterrence against terror without hesitation will prevent the next murder."

Matan Peleg, chairman of the Im Tirtzu movement, said, "It is sad to see how lowly terrorists who murdered the best of our sons are not executed and instead celebrate in Israeli prisons. The time has come to impose a death sentence on terrorists and on their family for immediate deportation. True deterrence begins with courageous judgments. A people who value life should not create incentives for their enemies to kill them. That's not how we fight terrorism. "

Lt. Col. (res.) Morris Hirsch, former head of the military prosecution in Judea and Samaria who accompanied the family and the Forum of Choice of Life, added that "given the position that the murderer could not be sentenced to death, we hope that the court will impose on the murderer a life sentence, from which he will not be released until he dies, and a particularly large monetary compensation. According to estimates, the PA will pay Ronen's murderer some NIS 5 million during his imprisonment. Therefore, the court was asked to award regular and punitive damages to ensure that this lowly murderer does not benefit. The time has come for the military courts to adopt an approach that sends deterrence to terrorists, even in the absence of the death penalty."