JERUSALEM // The parents of a murdered Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem said the guilty verdicts against two of their son’s killers on Monday had forced them to relive the day he was burnt alive.
The two Israeli minors, who have not been named, were found guilty of abducting, beating and then burning to death Mohammed Abu Khdeir in the July 2014.
His murder contributed to the start of Israel’s 50-day war on Gaza a few weeks later, which killed more than 2,200 Palestinians.
The panel of three judges delayed ruling on the ringleader of the murder — Yosef Haim Ben David, 31, infuriating Palestinians who accuse Israel of delaying the process.
“It made me relive my son’s murder, I went back to the time they burnt him — we haven’t had any justice for him and we won’t,” said Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s mother, Suha Abu Khdeir.
Suha spoke to The National while staring at the floor of her home, still absorbing the verdict delivered in the District Court in Jerusalem.
“I was in shock when the verdict was announced in court, I am still in shock now — I can’t really express it”.
While the two youths will be sentenced in December, and Ben David would reappear in court in January next year.
Defence lawyers presented a last-minute petition claiming he was insane and that a new psychiatric evaluation proved he had not been responsible for his actions at the time of the murder and was unfit to stand trial. An earlier claim of insanity had already been rejected by the court.
Ben David was previously videotaped confessing to the murder, explaining how it had been planned and in retaliation for the murder of three Israeli teenagers.
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.
A lawyer for the Abu Khdeir family, Mohannad Jabara, said the presentation of a psychiatric evaluation was a delaying tactic.
“The family are very disappointed — they said to me today that any Palestinian who does something to a Jewish Israeli is dealt with on the spot — he is killed or judged and punished on the spot — but on the other hand our son was burnt alive and even after a year and a half we still haven’t received our judgement”.
Mohammed Abu Khdeir was burnt alive on July 2, 2014, a day after the burial of three Israeli teenagers who were abducted and murdered nearly three weeks earlier.
Mohammed was abducted from outside the main mosque in Shuafat, a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. He had gone outside with a brother and his cousin, Tariq Abu Khdeir.
His brother and cousin went inside briefly for water while Mohammed waited outside ahead of morning prayer.
Footage captured on surveillance camera showed a car pulling up outside the mosque and Mohammed being pushed into the vehicle.
The court heard he was then beaten and had petrol poured down his throat, before being set alight.
His family immediately reported he was missing and his charred remains were found just a few hours later in Givat Shaul in the Jerusalem forest. The murder sparked an uprising in East Jerusalem referred to by Palestinians as “the Abu Khdeir intifada”.
Four days later, police detained six Jewish Israeli suspects for interrogation.
Ben David confessed, incriminating the two minors, and they were all put on remand for eight days.
Within a day, the two minors had also confessed and reenacted the murder for the police. The other three suspects were released as unconnected with the crime.
During the trial which lasted a year, the two minors turned against Ben David, saying he had given them pills before the killing.
The court viewed a surveillance videotape of Ben David and the two minors preparing to carry out the murder, by practicing punches and strikes.
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.
“Every time I go to the court and see the ones who burnt my son, my heart burns.”
He said life sentences would be the only fair judgement for the three men who killed his son.
Inside the family home a painting has recently been hung that shows Mohammed next to 18-month-old Palestinian boy, Ali Dawabshe, who was burnt alive on July 31 in an arson by suspected Jewish extremists, a year after Mohammed.
“The Dawabshe murder could have been prevented if the men who killed Mohammed were properly sentenced earlier.”
Hussein said the court had already examined Ben David and said he was not insane.
“None of the Israeli psychiatrists would write a report for Ben David, the defence tried to pay a lawyer from abroad but the judge initially refused.”
Outside the court a group of Abu Khdeir family members were holding posters with Mohammed’s image on them as the verdict was delivered.
“The verdict is a joke — the lawyer representing the murders was screaming at the judge and mocking him — it’s a jokes; a big lie,” said Aisha Abu Khdeir, an aunt of Mohammed.
“This verdict creates more agony and most suffering for us.”
His cousin also name Mohammed Abu Khdeir dismissed the verdict.
“The burnt by cousin alive in court again today, he was killed all over again in that courtroom.”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae