CA 6296/00 Kibbutz Malkiya v. The State of Israel is one of the most fascinating decisions on torts committed by public authorities in Israeli law. The case involved claims related to security activity and alleged negligence. The court held, among other things, that the plaintiff did not prove negligence, and therefore the State was not found liable under the tort of negligence.
The practical outcome is that a limited group of individuals, the members of Kibbutz Malkiya in this case, are forced to bear the cost of a security action taken for the benefit of the public as a whole, instead of distributing that cost across the public through compensation paid from the public treasury.
Whether this is justified is beyond the scope of this blog, but our family vacation in the north was a good opportunity to visit Kibbutz Malkiya and take in the landscape from its lookout.
The landscape from Kibbutz Malkiya’s lookout (Photo: Boaz Segal)
