Two Israeli men ‘convicted of murdering Palestinian teenager Abu Khdeir’

The courtroom at the same time delayed the verdict for the 3rd & chief suspect within the case following a last-minute insanity plea, sparking claims in that Israel is just too lenient with Jewish assailants. The court is expected to finalize their convictions in the near future after a procedural review required in the case of minors.

The dad, who has attended the court proceeding, wondered why the Israeli military hadn’t ruined the houses of the minors and Ben David as Israel does with suspected Palestinian terrorists.

Abu Khdeir’s name was initially included on an Israeli memorial to victims of “terror attacks”, but it was removed after his family objected, with his father saying he was Palestinian, not Israeli.

Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told reporters in Ramallah that the decision of the court “is a green light for keeping crimes against the Palestinians”.

The delay was met with fury by Muhammad’s parents, who said the Israeli court was “playing games” and would never deliver real justice for them.

Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Abu Khudair was kidnapped and killed in the early morning of 2 July 2014, the day after the funeral for three Israeli teenagers who had been kidnapped and killed while hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank.

They squirted a flammable liquid over the teenager and set fire to him while he was unconscious but still alive.

According to Alarabiya, the court said that the three of them admitted to kidnapping Mohammed Abu Khdeir, torturing him and burning him alive, in what they described as a revenge for the death of three Israeli men, days before kidnapping Abu Khdeir.

After destroying evidence in a Jerusalem park, the three went to Ben David’s home in the West Bank settlement of Adam, played guitar and went to sleep.

Hussein Abu Khudair asked, “Why haven’t they demolished the homes of these three murderers?”

The judge told the court on Monday that an insanity plea submitted by at the last minute Ben David’s attorney, Asher Ohayon, would be examined separately, “despite regular and appropriate protocol” later in December. Ben David confessed, incriminating the two minors.

Minors found guilty of murder can be held for life, but the punishment is usually lighter, he added.

But if Ben-David’s upcoming psychiatric evaluation essentially gets him off the hook for his role in Abu Khdeir’s murder, any efforts made by the Israeli government to take a harder stance against settler violence may be overshadowed by Palestinian anger.

Two teenagers were found guilty of murdering the 16-year-old and will face sentencing in January.

Many of the Palestinians killed have been alleged attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes. The Palestinians say the violence is rooted in frustration over a lack of hope for obtaining independence. “When we try to claim we are better than our enemies… we will always have this incident as a mirror”, Corb said.

“Israel is using a humanitarian issue for political gains and that reflects the racism of the Israeli occupation amid the silence of the global community”, Salem Khalleh, the group’s coordinator, said.