Israeli taxpayers paying hundreds of thousands for Nukhba terrorists’ legal defense

Eighty cases have been approved so far, with an average cost of NIS4,500.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Israeli taxpayer is on the hook for hundreds of thousands of shekels that are being paid to attorneys defending elite Hamas terrorists captured during or after they invaded Israel on October 7th, some of whom participated in the massacres, torture, and violent sexual abuse of Israelis, Channel 11 reported Sunday.

As of mid-July, approval has been granted for 80 Nukhba members to receive legal representation.

The amounts that have been approved vary from NIS 10,801 (one terrorist) to NIS 7,500 (6 terrorists), to NIS 6,000 (16 terrorists) and less.

The average cost is some NIS 4,500 per defendant, which adds up to a whopping NIS 360,000 (about $100,000) that the state will pay to try to protect enemy forces from answering for their war crimes.

In addition, retired police commander Avi Weiss of Telecom News told Galei Yisrael talk show hosts Shai Goldstein and Erez Tadmor Wednesday that the state has already funded the appearance of more than 100 Nukhba terrorists before the Supreme Court, and there are many more cases at the lower courts.

“Almost 3,000 terrorists [will appear] before the District Court,” he noted, “because of the attorney General, who took over the issue of the Nukhbas and all of them go through the civil courts to prolong their detentions.”

It costs “hundreds of shekels for each Zoom appearance, which can also reach a thousand shekels per court sitting,” he said.

Almost all of the terrorists are represented by the same firm, he added, that of Umm al-Fahm lawyer Muhammad Jabarin.

All of the fees will be paid out of state funds, he said, “despite the agitated pronouncements of the ministers of finance and justice – it’s a shocking thing.”

Two weeks ago, the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee had approved for its first reading an amendment to the Public Defenders Law stating that anyone who was not an Israeli citizen or resident who was suspected of terrorist acts committed on October 7 could not receive funding from the state for their defense.

Instead, their legal fees would be paid from funds usually transferred to the Palestinian Authority that have been frozen due to its financial support of terrorists jailed in Israeli prisons.

“The law requires representation by a defense attorney in cases where the detainee physically appears in court,” said a Judicial Authority spokesperson in response to the news report. “The fee is paid from the state treasury funds in accordance with the regulations.”

The court’s administration, she added, has asked the Justice Ministry how the law will be carried out and is still discussing “where to find the funding source.”

The issue of where exactly to try the terrorists has also yet to be resolved.

The options include a civilian criminal court, military court, or a special tribunal for October 7th-related crimes.

The latter two could be seen by the outside world as politically tainted, while putting thousands more cases into Israel’s already strained criminal justice system could mean that it would take years until the trials are all held.

HamasIsraeli courtNukhbapublic defender