State Seeks to Recover Benefits Paid to Family of Soldier Murdered in 1984 Terror Attack

Israel’s State Attorney’s Office has filed a rare civil lawsuit, seeking about NIS 2 million from four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who kidnapped and murdered soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. The suit was filed in Haifa Magistrate’s Court on behalf of the Defense Ministry, with the aim of reimbursing the state for benefits paid, and still being paid, to Tamam’s bereaved parents.

The defendants are convicted terrorists Ibrahim Abd al-Razak Biadsa, Ibrahim Naif Abu Mukh, and Saleh, formerly Rushdi, Abu Mukh, together with the estate of Walid Nimer Asaad Daka, who led the cell and ordered the killing. Daka died last year while serving his sentence. All four were living in Baqa al-Gharbiyye at the time of the attack and were sentenced to life imprisonment in the criminal case in 1987.

According to the indictment history cited in the civil claim, the four abducted Tamam in August 1984 while he was waiting for a hitchhike near Netanya. They bound him, blindfolded him, held him for two days, then took him to an olive grove near Mevo Dotan, where they killed him after five days in captivity and left his body there. They were convicted of multiple offenses, and their requests for early release were denied over the years.

The state says the payments were made under the Families of Soldiers Who Fell in Battle law, and that the terrorists, not the public, should bear the financial consequences of their actions. The lawsuit cites the criminal sentencing, which described the murder as a cold-blooded, premeditated act carried out by Israeli citizens against a soldier of the IDF because he was a soldier. It was filed by attorney Einat Shterman-Cohen of the Haifa District Prosecutor’s Office, in coordination with the Defense Ministry’s legal and bereavement branches.