Late Monday night Israel Police returned the body of Ala’a Abu Jamal, the Bezeq technician-turned-terrorist who carried out a ram-and-stab attack in Jerusalem seven months ago.
Abu Jamal murdered Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky on Malchei Yisroel Street last October, ramming his Bezeq car into a crowd waiting at a bus stop. He then got out of the vehicle and then attacking people with an axe until he was shot and killed by a security guard.
Some 200 Jerusalem Arabs crowded outside the cemetery during the killer’s funeral in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, in the Jabel Mukabar neighborhood.
The funeral became a mass scene of hatred and incitement to more terror, with participants in the proceedings calling out “Allahu Akbar!” (Allah is Great) and “In blood and faith we will avenge you, O Martyr!”
It is not the first time a terrorist’s funeral has erupted in demonstrations of hatred and incitement to terror – one reason that Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan had opposed the return of the bodies of terrorists who died while killing Israelis, to the Palestinian Authority and/or the families.
Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon vehemently disagreed with this policy, as do military and intelligence officials, who say it simply exacerbates tensions without accomplishing deterrence.
On Tuesday morning, Erdan once again instructed police to cease returning terrorists’ bodies to their families for burials.
“I was just shown the outrageous images from the funeral last night in East Jerusalem, in which the conditions set by the police were violated and the commitments made by the families were broken,” Erdan said, according to the Hebrew-language Ynet news site.
“The terrorists’ families lied to the High Court of Justice. It’s a shame the High Court believed them and pressured the police to return all the bodies by Ramadan.”
But police claimed the family met the conditions that were set — only 40 people were allowed into the cemetery. Border Guard Police prevented the crowd from entering.
Police delayed the return of the body for six months, until an agreement was reached with the family that the funeral would be held late at night with a small number of participants. The agreement was made in order to avoid the demonstration that developed in any case late Monday night – and despite the guarantee signed by the family.
The chanting took place outside the cemetery while the body was being carried from the nearby mosque to the burial site, police noted. (italics added)
