With no clear legal basis, the Israel Police forbade a family from living in their East Jerusalem home for over four months following an attack perpetrated by their minor son

On January 28, 2024, HaMoked wrote to the Israel Police to demand that a family be allowed to return to their home in A-Tur in East Jerusalem, which they were ordered to leave by the Police on October 30, 2024, following a stabbing attack committed by the family’s 17-year-old son, who was shot and killed in the attack. Immediately after the attack, the family was taken for questioning and then released once it was established they had no knowledge about the attack. At the same time the Police raided their home, searched it while wreaking havoc there. Thereafter, a police officer ordered the family to leave their apartment and forbade their return, without presenting any order, providing any explanation or setting a deadline for their return. The family of five moved to live with the father’s brother and there they remained out of fear of disobeying the police. After some two months, when the father of the family ventured to enter his home, the same police officer arrived and again ordered him to leave, clarifying the family must not return.

Aside from the severe harm to the family and the attendant harm to the uncle’s family, this caused special damage to the father of the family, who has a significant physical disability, given that his brother’s apartment, unlike his own, is not equipped and arranged to accommodate his special needs. In addition, HaMoked deplored the fact that the decision apparently lacked any known legal basis and had been implemented without any proper procedure, insofar as such existed. HaMoked stressed that “it is inconceivable that the authority charged with implementing the law would act in such a way and prevent an entire family from living in their home”. HaMoked demanded that the decision, if one existed at all, be reversed and also asked to receive a copy of it, in order to understand its reasons and the authority behind it.

Despite HaMoked’s repeated reminders, no substantive response arrived. Only on March 10, 2024, did the police respond that “as of this time, there is no preclusion to using the family home”. The response included a supposed explanation for the family’s removal from their home: “in view of the terrorist act… the required investigatory steps were taken including operational activity at the terrorist’s home and its environs. The activities included, among other things, the discovery and prevention of offences as well as the handling of severe disruptions of public order which took place in the location”.

And so the innocent family members returned to their home following HaMoked’s intervention, without knowing on what basis and for what purpose the police had prohibited them from living there for over four months.