Fortification of Sderot school
צילום: גדי קבלו
High Court to Sderot residents: State in charge of fortification
Plea made by Sderot residents asking to fortify their own homes denied by court, which refused to get involved in government time frame for fortification
The High Court of Justice on Monday rejected a plea filed by 30 Sderot residents calling on the government to fortify 800 private homes in the Qassam-battered town. The residents claimed the government was not upholding its responsibility to defend Israeli citizens against the threat of Qassam rockets.
The Court chose not to become involved in the State's fortification plan, and the judges accepted the State's position on the matter, according to which the government should carry out its plan to fortify the city as scheduled. However the judges did remark that they hoped the circumstances would cause the acceleration of the venture.
The verdict stated that government policy does not accommodate the fortification of private homes by their owners, for which they would later be reimbursed. The fortification plan is a wide-scale project and needs to be executed by the government, under its control, the judges ruled, adding that they did not see the need to become involved.
The judges did criticize the plan's schedule, however, which sees the completion of stage one of the fortifications during the third quarter of 2009. The verdict stated that from an unprofessional point of view, the time frame appeared too long when taking into account that lives were at stake. However the court refrained from ruling the advancement of the time frame as they did not possess the professional data to do so.
A plea filed against Defense Minister Ehud Barak , Housing and Development Minister Ze'ev Boim against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated that some of Sderot's residents were forced to pay for the construction of their secure rooms themselves, though the government had committed itself to doing so. The plea demanded reimbursement of the expenses.
The State responded that no law existed which required the government to secure homes in Sderot, and negated a promise made to the residents to that effect. The hearing brought to light a NIS 327 million ($93 million) budget towards the construction of secure rooms. However the budget for 2008 was set at NIS 50 million ($14 million) since the plan was scheduled to be set into motion only in 2009.
