The 7th anniversary of the Israeli settlers’ crime of burning alive the Palestinian child Mohammad Abu Khdeir

Today is the 7th anniversary of the kidnapping and the burning alive of the Palestinian child Mohammad Abu Khdeir by extremist Israeli settlers in one of the most savage crimes that confirms the barbarism and terrorism practiced by the Israeli occupation and settlers towards the Palestinians.

On July 2nd, 2014, three Israeli settlers, kidnapped the 16-year-child Abu Khdeir, from his neighborhood in Sha’fat village to the north of occupied Al-Quds. They took him to the forest in the village of Deir Yassin, to the west of Al-Quds, where they tied him up, brutally beat and tortured him, forced him to drink gasoline and then burned him alive, while they were dancing, playing music and enjoying watching the child martyr burning.

The crime of setting fire to the body of Abu Khdeir ignited a massive uprising in all Palestinian territories and received tremendous international condemnation and calls for holding the Israeli occupation leaders accountable for their crimes against Palestinian children.

 This horrible incident was not an exception in the history of the Israeli settlers. Since the establishment of the Israeli occupation entity in Palestine, the Zionists depended on burning and arson crimes as a policy and a main weapon to kill and displace the Palestinians. Such criminal acts were also perpetrated in other Palestinian areas. For example, in the Tiret Haifa crematorium on July 25, 1948, where the Haganah gangs burned dozens of Palestinians alive. Also, one year after the burning alive of the child Abu Khdeir, the Israeli settlers burned the Palestinian Al-Dawabsheh family in the village of Duma, south of Nablus.

Moreover, in the Israeli record of massacres, the occupation forces used incendiary bombs and white phosphorous in bombing the Gaza Strip between 2006 and 2014, causing the death and burning of dozens of Palestinians, most of whom were children.

The Palestinian holy sites were also the target of the Israeli arson crimes. In 2006, two settlers set fire to Al-Bishara Church  in Al-Nasera city, north of Palestine. In 2010, settlers burned a historic church in Al-Anbiya Street, west of Al-Quds. They also burned the Greek Orthodox Church in Al-Quds in 2015. In addition, a mosque in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah and a mosque in Nablus were burned in 2011. In 2018, the Israeli settlers burned Aqraba Mosque, southeast of Nablus.

Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein, who heads the “Lahava” terrorist organization, announced his support for the burning of Palestinian places of worship and sanctities. This reveals the barbaric nature of the occupation authorities that facilitate and support the settlers’ crimes. The burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969 and the burning of the furniture of Al- Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil days before the massacre against Palestinian worshipers in 1994 are clear examples of the extremist, racial and barbaric nature of the Israeli occupation and settlers.

Burning the Palestinian agricultural crops, vehicles and properties, particularly in the villages near the settlement outposts in the West Bank, is also part of the arson crimes committed by the Israeli occupation and settlers.

Hamda Mustafa