Israel has quietly reversed its stand and has handed over the bodies of the two Jerusalem-Arabs who carried out the brutal massacre in the Har Nof Synagogue last month. The families buried the terrorists in a ceremony replete with Palestinian Authority flags.
The massacre left four American-Israeli and British-Israeli rabbis dead, as well as a Druze policeman who came to their rescue. Seven more people were wounded.
The Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency reported that the families’ lawyer issued a statement after midnight confirming the release of the bodies, a month after Israel held them pending further consideration.
Chief Police Inspector Yigal Elmaliach told the Israeli court system, as reported here.
“The State of Israel is trying to cope with the recent wave of attacks. One possibility being considered is not to return the bodies to the families, but [for the state] to bury them. The issue is being examined at the highest levels.”
The families of the terrorists, Ghassan and Uday Abu al Jamal, who were cousins, went to court to demand the release of the bodies. Ma’an said that Israel agreed to return the bodies after ”the intervention of the lawyer.”
Israel’s reversal means either that it learned that it would lose the case in court, or that officials at the ”highest levels” now think that holding the bodies for five weeks was enough to help cope with the recent wave of attacks.”
The “wave” has subsided” if one follows Israel’s major media that play down or completely ignore attacks such as this week’s ambush of a vehicle that came under an attack of cinder blocks that nearly killed the driver, Jeff Seidel, and two passengers, as The Jewish Press first reported here.
The “wave” has subsided unless it washes ashore again with more murders and attempted murders of Jews. Then, if the terrorists are killed, perhaps the government will again decide to hold the bodies to help cope with the attacks.
The Har Nof savages were given an honorable burial before dawn Thursday in eastern Jerusalem in the presence of no more than 40 relatives, according to the lawyer who spoke with Ma’an.
A Palestinian Authority flag was held during the ceremony.
Below is the video of one of the funerals.