Mohammed’s father, Hussein, told The National that he sat through all 22 sessions in court and that he rejected the verdict and hoped the judge would dismiss the report purporting to show Ben David was insane.
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It was unclear if the verdicts would assuage fury over a perceived double standard in Israel’s treatment of Jewish and Muslim suspects. I’m afraid that the court will eventually get them [all] off the hook.
He held the Israeli government “fully responsible for the ongoing crimes committed against the Palestinians”, and called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to delegate a committee to investigate the reality of the situation in the Palestinian territories.
The judge found that Ben David drove the vehicle while the two youths beat Abu Khdeir unconscious in the back seat.
A decision on his fate is expected after the court rules on the insanity motion in the coming days.
The three have not been formally convicted: under Israeli law, a social worker must first approve convictions of minors, and a last-minute request for a psychiatric evaluation for Mr. Ben-David prevented the court from convicting him.
The EU published new guidelines on November 11 for labelling products made in Israeli settlements, a move Brussels said was technical but which Israel branded “discriminatory” and damaging to peace efforts with the Palestinians.
The episode enraged Palestinians and shocked Israelis, and contributed to a spiral of violence that culminated in a 50-day war in Gaza that summer.
The killing of the three triggered an Israeli crackdown on Hamas in the territory, to which the militant group responded by stepping up rocket fire on Israel from the Gaza Strip, which it controls. While the harshest penalty for murder for an adult is life in prison, there is no standard maximum sentence in Israel for minors convicted of the same crimes, said Mohanned Jabara, a lawyer representing the Abu Khdeir family.
Prosecutors said they confessed to involvement in the teenager’s death to avenge the slaying of three Jewish teenagers who were abducted in the West Bank by Palestinians two weeks earlier.
The family of a murdered Arab teen has blasted an Israeli court for stalling the conviction of the ringleader of the gruesome crime.
Israel has yet to arrest or charge anyone in the attack, but four Israeli extremists have been detained for six months without charge under a measure usually reserved for Palestinians suspected of plotting attacks.
Two Palestinians attempted to stab an Israeli soldier and a pedestrian in separate attacks near Jewish settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, authorities said, but both attackers were shot dead.
Khdeir was forced into a vehicle by Israeli settlers on an East Jerusalem street.
“The Dawabshe murder could have been prevented if the men who killed Mohammed were properly sentenced earlier”.
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“Technology in 3G – he observed – is at the end and 4G is already available in several countries and already partially in Israel, Palestinians will need to develop a service and spend some 35 million dollars, which in a couple of years will be old”.
