January 1, 2007SHURAT HADIN PETITIONS COURT OVER STATE'S REFUSAL TO DEFEND
SDEROT RESIDENTSFifty 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:
[email protected] Israel Tel.: 03-7361519
US Tel.: 212-591-0073