In a separate development Tuesday, an Israeli court sentenced an Israeli man to three years in prison for setting fire to a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic school in Jerusalem last year.
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The Jerusalem court convicted two minors, but conviction of the suspected ringleader, 30-something Yosef Haim Ben-David, was delayed after his lawyers submitted a new psychiatric appraisal that claimed Ben-David was seriously mentally incapacitated and therefore had no criminal responsibility.
Mohammed was abducted, beaten on the head and burned alive after the killings of three Israeli teens a week earlier.
Israel immediately blamed the kidnappings on militants from Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, rounding up hundreds of suspected members in the West Bank.
Rocket attacks and airstrikes between Israel and Gaza continued for weeks.
Many of the Palestinians killed have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes. Ben David did not testify.
Prosecutors say they confessed to the killing to avenge the slaying of three Jewish teens.
The three judges acknowledged in their ruling that Ben David had committed the murder but said he could not be convicted until the psychiatric assessment had been further examined. Abu Khdeir’s killing led to the worst riots in Jerusalem in a decade, spreading to Palestinian cities in Israel and the West Bank. No one has been charged in the attack.
Jerusalem District Court ruled that the two underaged defendants, whose names were withheld from publication, carried out the crime.
“When we try to claim that we are better than our enemies – and I think that we are better than them – we should look at this event as a mirror”, he said.
Ayman Odeh, a senior lawmaker from Israel’s Arab minority, said: “The state is sending a clear message of forgiveness and understanding when it comes to Jewish terror”.
“It’s all a lie”.
Hussein, Mohammad Abu Khdair’s father, said Mr Ben David was attempting to mislead the court.
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.
The attack on Tariq, the day after his cousin and friend Muhammad Abu Khudair was killed, was caught on video. In some cases, Palestinians charge protesters and others were killed in summary executions.
Khdeir’s death prompted riots by Palestinians in Jerusalem.
“Because they burned my son living, individuals now are stabbing”.
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In keeping with Israeli law, the two 18-year-olds convicted were not named because the crime took place and the trial began when they were minors. “I hoped they all would get a punishment”, said the mother of the victim, Suha Abu Khdeir, 45, from her living room hours after the trial ended.
