Israeli authorities are actively working on the amnesty for the murderers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped and burnt alive by Israeli Jewish settlers in 2014.
My relative Zohar is an educator in the 12th grade at an Anthroposophic School. She asked me to arrange a meeting with the Abu Khdeir family, in order to invite Hussein, the father, to meet her students.
Hussein’s son, Mohammed, was a 16-year-old Palestinian boy when he was killed by Israeli Jewish settlers. He was kidnapped on the morning of July 2, 2014, by the extremists in East Jerusalem.
A few hours later, a charred body was found at the illegal settlement of Givat Shaul, in the Jerusalem Forest.
Mohammed had been beaten, then burnt alive.
Mohammed’s story inspired the American-Israeli television miniseries ‘Our Boys’. The students watched it and the meeting was aimed at making them realize that those events were not fiction, but involved real human beings.
Visiting the Home of Mohammad Abu Khdeir Who Was Burned Alive by Israeli Settlers
Hussein agreed to meet us. But before talking with the students, he told us about the psychological torture that Mohammad’s parents have undergone ever since that horrific day.
For nine years now, Hussein’s wife has not been sleeping more than two hours a night.
While the other family members sleep, the mother sits in the living room with her own tormenting thoughts and memories of her child.
The father works hard in order to exhaust himself so that, when he comes back home, he is too tired to think.
During our conversation, Hussein told us that, about a month ago, he was approached by the Israeli Ministry of Justice Yariv Levin. Levin asked his approval to grant amnesty to the three murderers of his son Mohammad.
Mohammed’s mother also received a phone call from a lawyer who told her that the three boys regretted what they did and asked for her pardon.
However, Mohammed’s parents did not feel any compassion for their son’s murderers.
After we left Abu Khdeir’s home, Zohar and I were shocked. We immediately began to spread the news that Israeli authorities are actively working on the amnesty for the boy’s murderers.
In Israel, the feeling of injustice is so palpable that I immediately thought of a quote by German playwright Bertolt Brecht. “When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible,” he once said.
“When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.”
(Translated by Tal Haran. Edited by The Palestine Chronicle)
– As a member of Machsomwatch, Tamar Fleishman documents events at Israeli military checkpoints between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Her reports, photos and videos can be found on the organization’s website: www.machsomwatch.org. She is also a member of the ‘Coalition of Women for Peace’ and a volunteer in ‘Breaking the Silence’. Tamar Fleishman is The Palestine Chronicle correspondent at the Qalandiya checkpoint.
