New MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) is already hard at work on a new Knesset bill.
Shaked, who was sworn in on Tuesday along with the rest of the members of the 19th Knesset, is promoting a bill that will thwart any possibility that nationals from enemy countries could sue the State of Israel for damages.
The bill comes in the wake of the case filed against the State by Mustafa Dirani, a Hizbullah terrorist who held missing IAF navigator Ron Arad for several years and was believed to have information on what happened to him.
Dirani was abducted by the IDF as a bargaining chip for Arad and was returned to Lebanon in 2004 as part of a swap with Hizbullah, in exchange for the bodies of three soldiers who were kidnapped near the Lebanese border in 2000 and abducted Israeli citizen Elchanan Tenenbaum.
The moment he set foot back on Lebanese soil, Dirani announced that he was re-enlisting in Hizbullah to destroy Israel.
He also filed a lawsuit against Israel, for damages he claims he suffered during his imprisonment.
In July of 2011, the High Court of Israel allowed Dirani to sue Israel for 6 million shekels in damages, rejecting the State’s argument that the British law that prevents enemy aliens from suing the State in its own courts applies to the case. Israeli law, the judges said, “grants special status to the right to approach the courts and to a person’s basic right to protection of his body and dignity.”
Following the decision, the State asked the Court to hold another discussion on the matter. The discussion took place but a final ruling has yet to be made.
Shaked explained that she will work to change the existing law, which states that terrorists and nationals from enemy countries cannot sue Israel for acts that took place after 2000, but are still allowed to sue Israel for incidents that occurred before that.
“All Dirani wants is to embarrass Israel. Dirani’s lawsuit is a futile one because he cannot receive any money and all he wants is to sell tickets for an unsuccessful theatrical performance in which the end of the story is known in advance,” said Shaked.
“We must not let citizens of enemy countries run the State of Israel and we must definitely not give a hand to foreign citizens who are openly engaged in terrorist activities and who wish to dictate the rules of the game. I hope that the law will be amended immediately,” she added.
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