One year after the Martyrdom of Abu Khdeir…..and the killers are still unpunished!!!
It 24 days, it will be one years since the Jerusalemite child Mohammad Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and burned alive by three settlers who planned and carried out their crime for racially motivated reasons. Until this day, the occupation authorities did not punish the settlers and did not take any action towards them except for arresting them and presenting them to the District court in Jerusalem to listen to them as well as the witnesses. Sixteen session were already carried out for the killers in which 113 witnesses’ statements were heard (police personnel, Intelligence, eye-witnesses to the attempt of kidnapping the child Mousa Zalloum, Zalloum family members, the pathologist who supervised the dissection the of Mohammed’s body and others). Some hearing sessions were open to the public while others were not especially those where police and intelligence personnel gave their statements. The witnesses’ hearing session came after the settlers suddenly refused the charges against them after they were arrested and presented to court. Session for hearing the killers The last two sessions (June 3rd and 8th) were held to hear the killers. The main suspect (Yousef Ben David-30) refused to talk about his crime and remained silent throughout the sessions while the second suspect (Yair Ben David) agreed to speak but said in both session that he had no idea his uncle intended to kill the child Abu Khdeir. He said he was forced to hit Mohammad, hold him and choke him all the way from Shu’fat to the woods of Der Yassin as he was following the orders of Yousef Ben David. He could not refuse the orders and the kidnapping was revenge to the kidnapping of three settlers in Hebron. He said: “Our goal was to kidnap anyone who is young and small so he couldn’t resist”; the same settlers tried to kidnap a woman from Wad Al-Joz and a child from Beit Hanina before kidnapping Mohammad. He added: “We kidnapped Abu Khdeir and used force to bring him inside the car.” Yousef Ben David hit him on his head and Yair with the other settler held the child while Yousef was saying “Arabs have seven lives”. Yair put the child in a headlock who tried to resist in the first moments and said “Death for Israel” but lost consciousness later on and saliva came out of his mouth after being placed in a headlock from Shu’fat to the woods of Der Yassin. Revealing recordings for the three settlers “planning the crime…representation of the crime…confessions” The surprise revealed by the prosecution during the session of June 3rd and 8th was recordings for the settlers. The first recording was revealed on June 3rd which was a meeting for the settlers inside an optics store in West Jerusalem where the search and kidnap of a Palestinian was discussed. The meeting was held after they failed to kidnap the child Mousa Zalloum from Beit Hanina and also failed to attack his mother. The video showed the settlers’ practicing moves to learn how to attack and react. At the end of the meeting, they decided to meet at the end of the day to find another Palestinian to kidnap in Shu’fat or Beit Hanina as they insisted on revenge. The recording that was revealed on June 8th was for the three settlers few days after they carried out their crime during the interrogation as they confessed and represented their crime. Also, some of the confessions and statements they made during the interrogation were presented during the session and Yair tried to deny. The recording showed what the three settlers said regarding Abu Khdeir’s reactions in first moments of being kidnapped. According to the recordings, Yair confirmed that they kidnapped Abu Khdeir and had planned it in revenge for the three settlers in Hebron. They hit and controlled the child despite resisting them and he lost consciousness after hitting him on the head and choking him but was still breathing. Saliva came out of Mohammad’s mouth on Yair’s hand and happily asked Yousef: “Should I kill him?” According to the confessions, Mohammad stayed alive until they poured gas on him and burned him alive. Despite the clear confession of Yair and the other settlers, he still said he was forced to say that because of the pressure he was put under during the interrogating which was conducted by the “Shabak” interrogators. A plan to reduce the penalty on the settlers!!! Lawyer Mohannad Jbara, the Martyr’s family lawyer, considered the last session a plan to reduce the penalty on the settlers as one of the suspects said that he did everything as ordered by the main suspect “Yousef Ben David” and they could not refuse his orders (forcing them to carry out actions while under 18). The settler also tried to say that the child suffocated and did not pass away due to being burned which will change the main reason of the death. Also, Yousef Ben David claims to be suffering from “mental disorders", and thus reduce the penalty for all three suspects. Jbara said that the initial confessions of the settlers which are videotaped and their representation of the crime is enough evidence to convict them in court on charges of “premeditated murder”. Also, the testimony and report of the pathologist Dr. Qawjal during one of the hearing sessions where he said that Mohammad was burned alive unlike what the defense lawyers claim that the Martyr Abu Khdeir died before he the burning process. Transferred the settler “Yousef Ben David” to a foreign psychologist The defense lawyer said that Yousef Ben David will be presented to a foreign psychologist at the beginning of July. The Israeli psychologist said in his report that Yousef is sane and does not suffer from psychological or mental disorders and is qualified for the trial. 15.07.2015 The court postponed the sentencing of the settlers until 15.07.2015. The family of the Martyr…We will head to international courts The family of Abu Khdeir confirmed that it does not trust the Israeli judiciary system and its decisions. Almost one year after the Martyrdom of their son, the settlers are not yet punished. The family added that they will head to international courts if the panel of judges’ sentence against the settlers is not equivalent to the provisions of the heinous crime committed by them.
