The Israeli government has already allocated around one million shekels (≈$275,000) in taxpayers’ money to fund the legal defense by private attorneys of Palestinian terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7 and took part in the massacre, the Israel Courts Administration said on Tuesday.
The government body said the initial funding would go toward 79 private attorneys who agreed to represent the terrorists captured by Israeli forces on Oct. 7, including suspected members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, which led the mass infiltration and massacre.
The amount was revealed to lawmakers on Tuesday during a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which discussed an amendment to existing legislation that would halt the funding.
On Monday, Israel Hayom reported that Israeli courts maintain that a temporary order passed in the wake of the war with Hamas requires judges to appoint captured terrorists lawyers at Jerusalem’s expense.
The temporary change to the “Law on holding hearings using visual tools with the participation of prisoners and detainees,” which was first passed in late 2023 with the government’s backing, states that court hearings “will be held in the presence of the detainee’s attorney, and if he is not represented, the court will appoint a representative for him.”
Coalition lawmakers in recent months have advanced legislation that would deny terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 attacks the right to a public defender. However, due to the court’s interpretation of the earlier emergency order, Israeli taxpayers will be footing their legal bills.
The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Monday approved in first reading an amendment to the Public Defender’s Office Bill that seeks to establish that a person who is not an Israeli citizen or resident and is charged with or suspected of committing a terrorist crime will not be eligible for state funding for his representation. Instead, lawyer fees will be deducted from funds intended for the Palestinian Authority.
Committee chairman Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party) scrapped all references to the requirement to appoint representation from the bill, so that judges would not have to decide on the issue.
The first reading passed with the support of Rothman, Avraham Betzalel (Shas Party) and Matan Kahana (National Unity Party). Labor’s Gilad Kariv was present but refrained from voting, according to the Knesset.
Some 3,000 terrorists, from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and unaffiliated “civilians,” infiltrated the Jewish state on Oct. 7. The security forces killed approximately 1,000 of the terrorists and captured many others.
Roughly 1,200 Israelis were murdered on Oct. 7, with thousands more wounded and some 250 others abducted into the Gaza Strip. One hundred and twenty hostages, both living and dead, still remain captive at the hands of Hamas.