The family of one of three Israeli teenagers kidnapped and murdered in the West Bank has condemned the kidnap and killing of a Palestinian youth in east Jerusalem.
Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, 16, was found beaten up and charred soon after police received a report of a kidnapping in the Shuafat neighbourhood.
Police are considering a number of possible motives for the murder, but there are fears that this may be an act of revenge for the murder of the three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were discovered on Monday. But reports in the Israeli media also mention that Abu Khdeir was killed for being homosexual or as part of a family feud.
The family of Naftali Frenkel, 16, the youngest of the three friends murdered while out hitchhiking home after returning from school described the action as a “horrendous act”.
They said: “There is no difference between Arab blood and Jewish blood. Murder is murder. There is no forgiveness or justification for any murder.’’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as other Israeli officials, condemned the murder the Palestinian teenager. from East Jerusalem, which sparked clashes between local residents and Israeli police yesterday.
Netanyahu condemned the “reprehensible murder” and called on “all sides not to take the law into their own hands.”
He noted that “Israel is a nation of laws and everyone must act according to the law.
The Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, called the killing “a horrible and barbaric act which I strongly condemn. This is not our way.”
On Wednesday, soon after the discovery of the body of the Palestinian boy, Israeli police clashed with local Arab residents in East Jerusalem, especially in Shuafat and Beit Hanina.Rioters set a light rail station on fire and hurled homemade explosives at police officers. The rioters also hurled rocks and other objects, including a pipe bomb, at security forces at the Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem. One person was hurt.
Israeli opposition leader and Labour head Isaac Herzog said that if the killing of Abu Khedir was a nationalist-motivated hate crime, then it would constitute an “assassination” and an “act of terror.
He said that he was “extremely disturbed by the fighting in Jerusalem” and declared “Jews and Arabs will live here forever and will have to find a way to live side by side with each other.”
Several thousand Israelis gathered in a central Jerusalem square to protest against the violence, under the slogan “We mourn, we don’t take vengeance,” in reference to the three murdered Israeli teenagers.
The Israeli army spokesperson warned that soldiers who posted racist slogans and calls for vengeance on social networks will be severely punished.
Such actions are inconsistent with army’s worldview, which views such calls with “the utmost severity,” IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz said in a statement.
“We regret that the national feeling of sadness is being exploited by politicized actors to incite and to draw IDF soldiers into this kind of activity,” the statement read. “Freedom of speech on social networks is no substitute for command conversations in instances of this sort.”
Commanders have been instructed to “take a hard line” against soldiers making racist remarks or calls for vengeance, and to act to prevent such statements and acts, the statement added.
Israel’s Prime Minister on Wednesday convened Israel’s security cabinet for the third time in two days. However, no clear cut decision over Israel’s response to the murder of the teenagers appears to have been reached.
Galei Tzahal, the Israel’s Army Radio, reported that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett favour significant military action in Gaza, but are opposed by other ministers including Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch.
The Israeli army continued its search for the two Hamas operatives from near Hebron, who are the prime suspects in the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers.