This commentary documents the progress of a civil claim brought by the family of a Palestinian man shot in the street while walking home in a residential area of the occupied West bank. He was a resident of the Refugee camp in Qualandiya, a small village located between Jerusalem and Ramallah. On behalf of the family, the Hamoked Centre for the Defence of the Individual requested the The Military Advocate General (MAG) to conduct an investigation into the killing. 18 months later the MAG informed the family that the incident did not warrant an investigation.  The family filed a claim with the Israeli State Attourney, asserting Israel’s vicarious liability for the death and seeking compensation for their loss and suffering and for hardship, as the dead man had been the only breadwinner in the family. The State Attourney’s Office denied the facts alleged in the claim but asserted at the same time that the “act of State” doctrine would absolve the State of any liability in the event of such a killing by Israeli Military.

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It has taken the family a full decade of painstaking persistence and waiting to obtain compensation from the State of Israel. In January 2012, the court endorsed the parties’ settlement agreement, whereby the state would compensate the deceased’s family in the sum of ILS 400,000.  The case is illustrative of the struggle that Palestinians repeatedly face when seeking justice through the Israeli legal system. (See also the 2014 Amona case and the 2015 Duma case in this section). Since 2011 Israel has signalled a new military investigation policy, however improvements in the process and outcomes to date are not encouraging – see our 2014 entry on cases postdating Israel’s new investigation policy.