State sues 2 rightist couples for eviction expenses
Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office files civil suit against Federman, Tor families for more than NIS 150,000 following Federman farm's eviction in Kiryat Arba, which forced State to spend large sums of taxpayer's money
The Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office has filed a civil suit with the city's district court against Noam and Elisheva Federman and Rivkah and Sinai Tor on Wednesday. The State is suing the two couples for NIS 152,650 (roughly $ 40,000) following expenses the State of Israel was forced to spend in order to evacuate the Federman farm which is situated in Kiryat Arba's special security area.
According to the State, large IDF and police forces evacuated the Federman farm, which was maintained by the Federmans and the Tors in December 2008. It claims the farm's structures were built and kept illegally in Kiryat Arba's special security area and lands which do not belong to the State.
It is further claimed that the evacuation and demolition of the farm were performed after a petition filed by the defendants with the High Court of Justice against the eviction was rejected, and after the two couples refused to uphold the razing orders issued against them by themselves.
"As a result of the defendants' conduct, which blatantly disregarded razing orders issued for the structures and disregard for the law, as well as fear of violence during the eviction, the State was forced to invest many funds out of the taxpayer's money," the suit stated.
Deterring lawbreakers
The State stressed that the lawsuit was filed in order to end lawbreakers' disregard for law enforcing authorities and deter others from similar violations, which compromise the rule of the law.
The lawsuit also aims to retrieve the massive amounts of money which the State was forced to spend in order to enforce warrants and verdicts.
The State Prosecutor's Office claimed that the lawsuit, like previous similar ones, is part of a strategic concept according to which the State employs civil means in order to maintain the rule of law and public funds.
Federman said in response, "The magistrate's and district courts have already ruled that the State's conduct in the demolition of our farm was unlawful and violated our children's rights. Now they're adding insult to injury when in response to a lawsuit filed against them for hundreds of thousands of shekels they'd rather try and minimize the damage as illustrated in the lawsuit instead of admitting to their crimes."
