Inside the Jerusalem courtroom, two Israeli minors were convicted of murdering Mohammed.
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The two minors were 16 years old at the time of the crime, according to attorney Avi Himi, who is representing one of the youths.
Yosef Haim Ben-David, a West Bank settler who works as a Jerusalem optician and who confessed to leading the crime, was also found guilty.
The court is expected to consider the plea on December 20. He said there was no dispute about Ben-David’s condition, but he emphasized that it was “not such that detracts from his criminal responsibility” and fitness for trial. “What I saw today [in court] was utterly meaningless”. Ben-David has a history of mental illness and has been under medication for his condition, the original indictment said.
The murders of the three Israeli teens and Khdeir were links in a chain of violence that led to the Gaza war in summer 2014 between Israeli forces and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
Eighteen Israelis have been killed, mostly in stabbings, since mid-September. The organisation documented cases “in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces…in what appear to have been extrajudicial executions”.
An advisor for the Palestine Liberation Organization Xavier Abu Eid said via a tweet on Twitter that it was just another example of how cheap the lives of Palestinians are for Israel. Gunfire from an Israeli officer trying to secure the scene slightly wounded a bystander, she said.
The court is only allowed to make a formal conviction of the two minors after an authorized social worker has completed an evaluation, said prosecutors. “I think they will say that they were insane and give them a year or two, that’s all”. “As a society we will continue to fight all avengers and lynchers, as we did in this case”.
Muhammad Abu Khdeir was kidnapped in the early hours of July 2, 2014, as he was making his way to pray at the local mosque in the Shuafat neighborhood of East Jerusalem. He had been beaten and burned alive.
Fire dust material was found in the boy’s respiratory system, meaning “the boy had inhaled this material while he was burnt alive”.
16, Mohammad Abu Khdair, was killed in apparent retaliation for the murders of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. Their bodies were found on the 18th day of the search in a field northwest of Hebron on June 30.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the move “hypocritical and a double standard”.
While Israeli right wing politician blame the Palestinian Authority and media outlets for incitement responsible for the current wave of violence, Palestinian officials blame Israel for its 50-year occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, where they wish to establish a Palestinian state, in accordance with the two-state solution.
The war killed more than 2,200 people, making 2014 the bloodiest year of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the United Nations.
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“We don’t understand how the Israeli government knows who the killers are but is not doing anything to punish them and bring them to court”, Nasser said.
