The Israeli high court of justice on Tuesday rejected a petition to demolish the homes of the Jewish settlers who had been convicted of murdering teenager Mohamed Abu Khdeir in 2014 in Occupied Jerusalem.
The petition demanded the convicted Jewish murderers receive the same punishment given to families of Palestinian attackers.
The court turned down the petition which was filed by the victim’s parents at the behest of the Israeli government and its attorney general. They justified the need to reject the demolition of Jewish homes by stating that it would not be appropriate to demolish the homes of Jewish terrorists unless there was a sudden sharp increase in terror acts carried out by Jews.
However if they were Arabs’ homes they would have been demolished within days.
Hussein Abu Khdeir the slain teenager’s father condemned the decision asserting that “if this was an Arab who murdered a Jew his home would have been demolished within days. If they do not want to demolish the Jewish terrorists’ homes then they should not demolish any homes. This is discrimination and racism. Such a decision encourages others to continue hurting us under the auspices of the state.”
Hussein said the family intends to take legal measures against the verdict. “We will turn to an international court so we could get a decision that could punish the terrorists.”
In July 2014 his 16-year-old son Mohamed Abu Khdeir was abducted from his east Jerusalem neighborhood before being beaten and burned alive by three Jewish settlers.
Later in November 2015 the Jerusalem district court convicted Yosef Haim Ben David of murder and gave him a life sentence while it sentenced one of his accomplices to life in prison and the other one to 21 years.
