Herzl Hajaj, the father of Shir Hajaj, who was murdered in a terror attack in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem, explained in an interview to Arutz Sheva his request to join, as a petitioner, the legal process to revoke the citizenship of the terrorist who murdered his daughter together with three other officers.
"First of all, we want to raise our voices, we want to show that there are faces behind these families who lost the most precious thing they had," said the bereaved father.
According to Hajaj, the State Prosecutor's Office is not doing enough to bring the murderer and his family to justice. "They tell us, 'Sit on the sidelines, we’re taking care of it,' and then the state does not do enough. The matter passes from clerks to prosecutors and [ultimately leads nowhere], and you don’t don’t see that [required] push.”
"On the other hand, I see [pro-Palestinian Arab legal organization] HaMoked as having experienced lawyers who come ready for battle against the state, and I feel that it is also against me, and they come with fire in their eyes and push everything quickly and file appeals and submit everything at speeds you cannot believe.”
Hajaj wants a more effective body than the Prosecutor to be established to deal with the terrorists. "We want to fight this. We want our voices to be heard, [and] the State should set up a body beyond the usual prosecution to push this.”
"Because of this we want to be at the trial [and also be heard through] our lawyer, who is determined and comes with all his heart, and [...] with his help and that of the Im Tirtzu association, we hope that this will give us the tailwind and the strength to fight.”
Hajaj said that there is special importance to quickly dealing with the petitions against terrorists. "We want to prevent the next terror attacks. There’s no deterrence here. We’ve already been fighting for a long time over whether they will take their identity cards from them or not, and there are families that have been waiting for 15 years for a decision by the Supreme Court, that decides not to decide. We want to change this, it’s driving us crazy. We have no deterrence here and they’re laughing at us in our faces."
"There are three simple steps that the State has already decided on and that must be implemented: to demolish the homes, revoke residency or citizenship, and stop National Insurance funds to the families of terrorists," Hajaj stressed.
