Israeli troops on Sunday shot and wounded a Palestinian during what the army called a “violent riot” in the West Bank.
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The incidents are the latest in a string of stabbings, shootings and auto rammings in recent weeks.
Two Palestinians were shot dead Tuesday after allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier and a pedestrian in separate attacks near Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Twenty-one Israelis have also been killed after violence erupted in Jerusalem following Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a sensitive Jerusalem holy site.
Non-Muslim prayer is banned around al-Aqsa and Israel has said it will not change that.
Mohammad Abu Khdair’s body was found in a forest in West Jerusalem on 2 July 2014, two days after the bodies of the Israeli teenagers abducted and murdered by Hamas militants that June were found.
The deaths were part of domino-effect violence that led to a almost two-month war in the Gaza Strip. Minors found guilty of murder can be held for life, but the punishment is usually lighter, he said. “I am afraid in that the court will release them (the suspects) in the end”.
Abu Khdeir was kidnapped off an East Jerusalem street and put in a auto.
“I was in shock when the verdict was announced in court, I am still in shock now – I can’t really express it”.
The EU’s new guidelines mean goods originating from settlements can not be labelled “Made in Israel” if they are sold in the European Union. An earlier claim of insanity had already been rejected by the court.
Gadi Gevaryahu, who is the head of the Tag Meir anti-racism NGO, said the postponing of Ben David’s conviction was “disappointing”. During a series of police interviews, the suspects confirmed Abu Khdeir was killed in retaliation for the deaths of Naftali, Shaer, and Yifrah. It is this unwritten law which Abu Khdeir’s cousin refers to in her anguished words. He was then transported to the Jerusalem Forest, where he was dragged into the woods, doused with gasoline, and set ablaze.
He said: “How can the defendant, two days ago, a year-and-a-half after the crime, bring a document claiming insanity?” These Palestinians are not given the right to a trial, to hear the charges against them, to be found guilty or not guilty; instead they are immediately gunned down at the scene of an alleged crime. During police questioning the three were filmed re-enacting the crime.
Asher Ohayon, Mr Ben David’s attorney, submitted at the last minute a psychiatric opinion which said he had not been responsible for his activities during the period of the homicide.
“The court is not honest, they are sympathetic to the criminals”, said Hussein Abu Khdeir, Muhammad’s father.
“The Dawabshe murder could have been prevented if the men who killed Mohammed were properly sentenced earlier”. But the accused ringleader, Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, was not convicted due to questions over his mental state.
“The court behaves one way with Arabs and another way with Jews”, he told reporters outside the courthouse, calling the last-minute psychiatric report by Ben David’s lawyers a “trick”.
Album of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, dancing with his family’s debke troupe.
The case took an extraordinary turn in September, when Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli defence minister, said that the Israeli establishment believed it knew who carried out the deadly arson attack, but that there was “difficulty putting them on trial”.
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“This verdict creates more agony and most suffering for us”.
