Thirteen years after their children were murdered in the No. 37 bus bombing in Haifa, bereaved parents and families are protesting the possible parole of an accomplice in the attack, Mounir Rajbi, who is serving a lengthy prison sentence. Rajbi, who lived in Haifa at the time of the attack, was charged with helping Hamas find a location for the attack, hiding an explosive device, and aiding the terrorist in reaching the attack site. His brother, a Hamas operative from Hebron, was also involved in the attack, which killed 17 people, most of them teenagers and children. Bereaved family members fought against a plea bargain initially offered to Rajbi and also pushed for him to receive the maximum sentence for aiding and abetting the enemy during wartime. Rajbi was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison. Over the last several years, the families have also pushed the Interior Ministry to revoke Rajbi's residency status and to deport him to Judea and Samaria. Their request had been repeatedly denied. When the families learned that Rajbi had petitioned the Israel Prison Service Parole Board to reduce his sentence by a third, bereaved fathers Yossi Tzur and Ron Kehrmann, who lost their children Asaf and Tal, respectively, approached Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on the matter. Deri said he had begun the process of revoking Rajbi's residency. In a letter the fathers received in April, Deri stated that he had passed their request for the attorney general's approval, required by law in such cases. It seems the process has since stalled, and the bereaved families are concerned that it will not move forward before Rajbi's anticipated parole in early 2017. "[Attorney General Avichai] Mendelblit is running away from the decision and the responsibility," Tzur said. "After all, he has the authority to approve the request. This is an outrage. How can Rajbi return to Haifa, the place where the [bereaved] families can run into him on a daily basis -- can see the murderer of their children living, having a family, free from any restrictions? We demand a decision be made, otherwise we will turn to the High Court." In a statement issued Wednesday, the Justice Ministry said, "We are currently awaiting a crucial ruling by the High Court of Justice that would directly impact proceedings of this nature." The statement referred to a petition filed against a decision made by a former interior minister some 10 years ago to revoke the residency status of east Jerusalem residents who were elected to the Palestinian parliament as Hamas representatives.
