By Tzvi Lev/TPS
Jerusalem (TPS) – After months of negotiations, Israeli authorities handed over the body of the terrorist who committed a shooting attack on a bus in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot in March despite firm opposition to the move by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.
Muhammad al-Kalouti, 21, was buried in a small ceremony heavily guarded by police at the Bab al-Zahra cemetery in Jerusalem last night. Al-Kalouti had been killed by security forces while perpetrating the attack.
The Israeli government often holds the bodies of terrorists both as a deterrent against future attacks and because funerals in the past have turned into massive demonstrations of incitement. Officials only returned Al-Kalouti’s body after the family deposited NIS 20,000 in collateral with the police and pledged not to have more than 30 people at the ceremony.
Defense Minister Liberman is a firm proponent of withholding the bodies of terrorists from their families, but Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit ruled that the move did not have legal justification and ordered the body released. The Supreme Court has also demanded answers from the government as to why terrorists’ bodies have not been handed over after it ruled on the issue in July.
Liberman criticized Mandelblit’s decision yesterday, telling reporters that “the role of the attorney general is to be an advisor, not a judge.”
Liberman’s predecessor Moshe Yaalon had opposed withholding the bodies of terrorists from their families and had argued that the policy only provoked more attacks.