Israel's Jerusalem District Court on Monday convicted two Israelis for the murder of Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir last summer, with a third suspect who admitted to the killing escaping conviction on the grounds of his mental health. The conviction of Yosef Ben David, the alleged ringleader of the gang that kidnapped, assaulted, and burned Muhammad, 16, to death, was suspended to allow for a last minute psychiatric evaluation, Israeli news site Haaretz reported. The 31-year-old suspect's lawyer submitted an evaluation last week declaring that he was not responsible for his actions at the time of the murder. The two Israeli youths found guilty will be sentenced on Jan. 13, according to the AFP news agency, while another hearing for Ben David was set for Dec. 20. All three suspects confessed to the murder during questioning by Israeli police, admitting to beating the Palestinian teenager unconscious before pouring flammable liquid on him and burning him alive. Th...

From the Guardian - Tariq Abu Khdeir has been arrested twice this summer. The first time, Israeli police accused the 22-year-old of participating in the riots in July in East Jerusalem’s Shuafat following the kidnapping and murder by Jewish extremists of his 16-year-old cousin, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, whose burned body was found in the Jerusalem Forest. Last week, the police came again for Tariq, this time at 1.30am, accusing him and two other cousins of throwing stones at the light railway trains that run through East Jerusalem – a charge he denies. “They took me for interrogation to the police station in Neve Yaakov,” he says. “It was full. There were young guys in there accused of everything – from throwing stones and fireworks. Everything.” Tariq Abu Khdeir is one of more than 700 Palestinians from East Jerusalem, 260 of them children as young as 13, who have been arrested in the continuing crackdown on what those on both sides have tried to define as the beginnings of a “kids’ in...

By Dan Cohen at Mondoweiss - On July 2, three Israeli settlers kidnapped and murdered 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. Yosef Chaim Ben David, 29, a shopkeeper from the settlement of Adam masterminded the plot. According to a published indictment, Ben David, along with two minors whose identities are protected by a gag order, forced Mohammed Abu Khdeir into a car and beat him with a wrench before forcing him to swallow gasoline. Autopsies found soot in Abu Khdeir’s lungs, indicating that he was burned alive. Early last month, I met with the Abu Khdeir family in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. Three months after the murder of the soft-spoken teenager, the Abu Khdeir family awaits justice that will likely never come. Sitting in their mourning tent in front of their home, Hussein Abu Khdeir, Muhammad’s father, told me, “I’m 100% certain we won’t receive justice in this racist court.” Since the horrific murder of their...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States on Wednesday claimed Israel had targeted members of a Palestinian family whose teenage son was kidnapped and killed in July. Tensions between Palestinians and Israelis in annexed East Jerusalem plunged to a new low on July 2 when 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was snatched from an East Jerusalem street and later found burned alive. Israeli police arrested six alleged Jewish extremists as suspects and on July 17 charged three, freeing the others. The death of the Palestinian teen -- thought likely in retaliation for the abduction and killing of three Israeli students in late June -- sparked rioting and helped unleash the conflict under way in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Three days after his death, on July 5, the United States slammed Israel's arrest of a 15-year-old cousin, Tarek Abu Khdeir, 15, a US citizen. He was brutally beaten in an assault captured on camera, detained, and eventually freed and allowed to return to Florida. more

From New York Magazine - In many ways, the story of this month's eruption of violence in Israel and Palestine has been depressingly familiar. But in one interesting way it has been a little bit different from the beginning: American audiences are seeing the story of the conflict, perhaps more than ever before, through Palestinian eyes. That this is the case is probably something of an accident. But after Israeli extremists kidnapped and murdered a Palestinian kid named Mohammed Abu Khdeir, apparently in retribution for the earlier murder of three Israeli teenagers, police detained and beat up his cousin, Tariq Abu Khdeir, a 15-year old Palestinian-American from Tampa, vacationing with his family*. It is common for television news broadcasts to carry sympathetic stories of a local American kid tragically caught up in Middle Eastern violence. It is not so common for that kid to be Palestinian. Soon the networks were broadcasting sympathetic interviews with Tariq Abu Khdeir's an...

The Electronic Intifada has obtained video images showing the faces of two of the suspected kidnappers and murderers of Muhammad Abu Khudair, the Palestinian teenager who was abducted on Wednesday morning, burned alive and dumped in a Jerusalem forest. The footage comes from a security camera on the building owned by Hussein Abu Khudair, Muhammad’s father. Muhammad was kidnapped from right outside the building in an apparent racially-motivated reprisal for the killings of three Israeli teens whose bodies were found in the occupied West Bank last Monday. The video above was taken on a mobile phone pointed at a computer belonging to Hussein Abu Khudair that was playing the original video from the security camera. Israeli police were present at the time the mobile phone footage was shot and their voices can be heard in the background, but they were apparently unaware that the mobile phone video was being made. A short time later, around 6am on 2 July, just over two hours after Muh...

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have arrested six suspects in their investigation into the murder of a Palestinian teenager who was killed in a possible revenge attack. Israeli media reported Sunday that police believe the motive behind the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was connected to the deaths of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank days earlier. Late Friday, a senior Palestinian official said that a preliminary autopsy report showed Abu Khdeir was burnt alive by his kidnappers. Attorney General Muhammad Abd al-Ghani Uweili told Ma'an Abu Khdeir's autopsy showed soot in the victim's lungs and respiratory tract, indicating he was alive and breathing while he was being burnt. Abu Khdeir also had a head injury, but died from complications as a result of being burnt, Uweili said. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A preliminary autopsy report shows that 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir was burnt alive by his kidnappers, a senior Palestinian official said late Friday. Attorney General Muhammad Abd al-Ghani Uweili told Ma'an Abu Khdeir's autopsy showed soot in the victim's lungs and respiratory tract, indicating he was alive and breathing while he was being burnt. Abu Khdeir also had a head injury, but died from complications as a result of being burnt, Uweili said. A final autopsy will be released later, he added. more

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Thousands of Palestinians received the body of Muhammad Abu Khdeir for burial on Friday as clashes broke out across Jerusalem in protest against his murder. The 16-year-old's body arrived in a Red Crescent ambulance Friday afternoon after crowds had gathered since the early morning to bury the teenager. Grieving Palestinian youths carried the body on their shoulders chanting "We have had enough!" as crowds waved Palestinian flags and shouted slogans demanding freedom. Crowds chanted "Allah Akbar!" and "We sacrifice our blood for you!" as Muhammad's body was taken for burial. more