SHURAT HADIN PETITIONS COURT OVER STATE’S REFUSAL TO DEFEND SDEROT RESIDENTS

Fifty Sderot Residents Ask Court to Declare Them Exempt From Paying Taxes if IDF is Restrained From Responding to Missiles

Fifty residents of the Southern Israeli city of Sderot have petitioned the District Court this morning to declare them exempt from paying taxes in light of the State’s refusal to provide adequate military protection to their community. The plaintiffs claim that the Government’s policy of restraint against the on-going Palestinian rocket attacks has endangered their families’ lives and encouraged the terrorist organizations to escalate their attacks. They are demanding that that until Sderot is given the same level of military protection provided by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to all other cities in the Jewish State that they not be obligated to pay taxes to the Israeli government.

In addition, the Sderot residents are requesting that they receive a tax refund for all the amounts paid to the State since June 2004, which is the month that the deadly Palestinian missiles claimed the first civilian life in Sderot. As the plaintiffs’ court papers state: “From this date the State of Israel was on notice that the Qassam rockets began to seriously endanger the lives of the Sderot residents and nevertheless refused to provide the appropriate military response to the terrorists.” The law suit draws a connection between the historic obligation of a citizen to pay taxes to the government and the duty of the State to militarily defend the lives of the taxpaying citizen from foreign aggressors. According to the plaintiffs, this social contract, which is the basis of any political framework, imposes civic obligations on the citizens of the state in exchange for the government acting to protect their natural rights including their physical safety. Citizens, they claim, only are obligated to pay taxes when and if the government is under a similar duty to defend them. The State of Israel has breached its duty to employ the IDF to defend the residents of Sderot from the Palestinians.

The Sderot residents are represented in the petition by Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

According to attorney Darshan-Leitner: “The Government’s immoral decision to neglect the safety and rights of the residents of Sderot and it surrounding communities to further its diplomatic relations with the United States and Europe must be opposed. The State’s first obligation must be to safeguard its citizens and to utilize all its military might to destroy the terrorists firing rockets from Gaza. The State cannot impose tax obligations on the residents of the Negev even as it abandons them to the Palestinian terrorists’ attacks. We are asking the District Court to declare that the residents in the Negev areas under continuous Qassam attacks, who the State has told to `fend for themselves,’ are no longer obligated to pay any taxes to the State of Israel. If the IDF won’t fight, Sderot residents aren’t going to pay.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COPY OF THE PETITION:

info@israellawcenter.org

Israel Tel.: 03-7361519 US Tel.: 212-591-0073

This entry was posted on Friday, January 5th, 2007 and is filed under news. You can leave a response.