Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger
Rabbi Ahiad EttingerOfer Amram

Supreme Court Justices Yitzhak Amit, Ofer Grosskopf and Alex Stein rejected on Tuesday the appeal by the family of terrorist Omar Amin Yusuf Abu Laila against the demolition of the apartment in which he lived.

Abu Laila is the terrorist who murdered Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger and IDF soldier Gal Keidan in a pair of terror attacks in Samaria last month.

In the brief ruling, the judges wrote that there was no basis for discussing the arguments raised against the very power of the military commander to order the demolition of homes of terrorists.

The judges also rejected the claim that the fact that the apartment is registered in the name of the terrorist's grandfather prevents it from being demolished. "There is no place for us to examine the petitioner's claim that the building in which the apartment is located belongs to the terrorist's grandfather. As the petitioner himself notes in his petition, the grandfather is no longer alive, and in any case his rights to the property were transferred to his heirs, and it is reasonable to assume that the family of the terrorist is among the heirs.”

"In this case, the military commander acted reasonably and proportionately in deciding to restrict the demolition order to the terrorist's housing unit and took effective steps to minimize the damage to the rest of the building, while ensuring that the terrorist's family would not remain without a roof over their heads. There is therefore no reason to intervene in his judgment," added Justice Stein, who wrote the ruling.

At the end of the ruling, it was determined that the order that had prevented the demolition of the terrorist's home would expire in a week.