Two Israeli teenagers convicted for murder of Mohammad Abu Khdair

The main suspect in the case was found responsible by the district court on Monday but his verdict was delayed after his lawyers submitted an insanity plea.

The minors, whose names were not released due to their age, were found guilty on Monday of the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was abducted outside a mosque near his home, driven to a forest, and burned alive in July 2014.

The two minors are scheduled for sentencing in January.

Hussein, Mohammad Abu Khdair’s father, said Mr Ben David was attempting to mislead the court.

“If they were Arabs, their homes would have been demolished immediately”, said the elder Abu Khdeir, a member of a prominent Palestinian family with branches that reach to the United States. In August, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that so-called administrative detention, long an Israeli tactic to jail Palestinian suspects without trial or access to evidence, would be used on Israeli terror suspects, as well. “People started to scream ‘terrorist, terrorist, ‘ and I was afraid they would attack me”. He said the last-minute insanity plea made a “joke of the court”.

The prosecution had argued that Ben David was responsible for his acts and fit to stand trial.

The two teenagers confessed to the abduction in court, though one testified that he was not involved in the killing. It came just one day after the burial of three Israeli teens kidnapped and shot dead by Palestinians, their bodies abandoned in a shallow grave near Hebron, in the West Bank.

The settlements are illegal under worldwide law and major stumbling blocks to peace efforts, with those in the West Bank and East Jerusalem built on land seen as part of a future Palestinian state.

A fresh wave of violence erupted in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip at the start of October, including knife, gun and car-ramming attacks as well as protests by Palestinians. Zaban said the late timing was “against regular and appropriate protocol” but said the court would examine it and issue a verdict later this month. The youthful defendants asserted that Ben David gave them “pills and energy drinks”. Israel has a mandatory life sentence for adults convicted of murder, Gross said.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed during this period, with some killed in clashes with Israeli security forces, and others killed by security forces and vigilante citizens while allegedly trying to carry out attacks. Ben-David refused to defend himself during court proceedings as a result.

The two boys convicted were not identified because they were minors at the time of the crime.

He was bludgeoned then burned to death in a forest in Jerusalem during July of 2014.

The department said that Israeli policies “in Silwan aim not only to alter the historic character of the area and to consolidate Israeli control over the Old City of Jerusalem… but also contribute to the systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem”.

Israel says the violence stems from Palestinian incitement and incendiary videos that encourage bloodshed on social media.