A Jerusalem court found two Israelis guilty yesterday of the burning alive of a Palestinian teen in the run-up to last year’s Gaza war, but held off on convicting the alleged ringleader, raising the risk of fresh tensions. “This non-conviction joins the legal system’s reluctance to put to trial the killers of the Dawabsha family, whose identities are known to the defense establishment”, he told the NRG website, as cited by the Times of Israel.
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The lawyer of Abu Khdeir’s family questioned why the insanity plea was filed only at the last minute, as the trial has been going on for more than a year. 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.
Ben-David and the two unnamed minors confessed to the crime and even reenacted the grisly murder for investigators, according to police. Hussein said the court had already examined Ben David and said he was not insane.
Three Israelis, including two minors, were found guilty on Monday of the murder of Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old who was attacked and burnt alive in July 2014.
Following the announcement that the Israeli teenagers’ bodies had been found, Israeli politicians made repeated calls for revenge. After incinerating him alive, they dumped his’s body in a West Jerusalem field.
An adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, Xavier Abu Eid, tweeted that the Abu Khdeir case was “an example of how cheap Palestinian lives are for Israel”.
He testified that the three had spent hours driving around, looking for a victim. Ben-David has a history of mental illness and has been under medication for his condition, the original indictment said.
Hamas denounced the delay in the verdict for Ben-David, calling it “proof of the occupier’s racism and the cover it gives to settlers’ crimes”.
The lawyer for the Abu Khdeir family, Mohannad Jabara, said the presentation of a psychiatric evaluation was a delaying tactic.
The judge determined that Ben David drove the vehicle while his two accomplices beat Abu Khdeir unconscious in the back seat.
The homicides of Khdeir and the three Israeli teenagers were links in a chain of violence that resulted in the Gaza war in Hamas, which commands Gaza and summer 2014 between Israeli forces.
Muhammad’s parents attended every court hearing since the trial began.
In the first incident, a Palestinian with a knife allegedly tried to stab an Israeli civilian near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem, but was shot dead by soldiers at the scene, she said.
“It is our people’s right to defend themselves by all possible means”, said Abu Zuhri, adding that “everyone should bear the responsibility towards the organized terror of state that is practiced by the Israeli occupation”. I am afraid that the court will release them (suspects) in the end.
The two teenagers, who were not named because they are juveniles, are expected to be sentenced in January.
The attack on Tariq, the day after his cousin and friend Muhammad Abu Khudair was killed, was caught on video.
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Hamas said Kerry’s statements are in favor of the Israeli army, committed atrocities against the Palestinians, saying “Kerry’s statements are unprecedented moral collapse”.
