Israeli victim’s family outraged terrorist won’t get death penalty

Although the terrorist who killed First Sergeant Lubarsky was convicted of murder, Lubarsky’s family is angry he won’t receive the death penalty. 

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Hamas supporter who killed First Sergeant Ronen Lubarsky with a marble slab during an IDF mission in an Arab village near Ramallah last May was found guilty by an Israeli military court on Sunday.

“The military court in Judea (the West Bank) convicted the terrorist Islam Yousef Abu Hamid on charges of murdering soldier Ronen Lubarsky,” the Army said in a statement.

Abu Hamid had dropped a 40-pound marble slab onto First Sergeant Lubarsky’s head in an attempt to interfere with an arrest mission the IDF was carrying out in the village of al-Amari.

First Sergeant Lubarsky died in the hospital two days later from his wounds. Abu Hamid was caught a few weeks later and confessed.

Arik Lubarsky, Ronen’s brother, reacted to the conviction by demanding the death penalty.

“The time has come for the Military Advocate General to demand that the lowly terrorist be sentenced to death,” he said, “and we will not demand less than that. If necessary, I will be the one who will be happy to carry out the sentence.”

“It is a shame that instead of executing the terrorists, the State of Israel is conducting negotiations with them in the prisons. When the first terrorist will be hung in the city square, it will prevent further terror attacks,” Mr. Lubarsky said.

Lubarsky’s family had boycotted the trial, calling it a “farce” specifically because according to their lawyer, Maurice Hirsch, it was set up so that Abu Hamid would not receive the death penalty.

Hirsch expressed mixed feelings at the trial’s end.

“Even though we can only express satisfaction with the conviction of Ronen’s vile murderer, the fact that the political echelon and the Military Advocate General’s Office did not see fit to seek the death penalty constitutes a serious blow to deterrence,” he said. “The time has come to change the policy on the death penalty, in order to prevent the next murder.”

In December, the IDF destroyed the family home of Abu Hamid after the High Court rejected a petition to limit the destruction to only two floors of the house.

However, as revealed in a detailed report in January by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, none other than PA President Mahmoud Abbas immediately ordered the rebuilding of Abu Hamid’s home at Palestinian Authority expense.

Abu Hamid is a known Hamas supporter, having spent five years, from 2004 to 2009, in prison for his terrorist activities. He also has brothers who are currently jailed for terrorism offenses, including murder.