Yosef Haim Ben David (centre)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected appeals filed by three Israelis convicted in a high-profile murder of a Palestinian teenager in 2014.
Yosef Haim Ben David and two underage accomplices were convicted in 2016 of abducting 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir and burning him to death. Ben David appealed the sentence, pleading insanity.
The court on Thursday upheld Ben David’s sentence of life plus 20 years. His two accomplices, both minors at the time, also appealed and their sentences, one to life in prison and the other to 21 years, were upheld.
Ben David and his accomplices said the killing was in revenge for three Israeli teens abducted earlier that summer and killed by Palestinians allied with the Islamic militant group Hamas. The incidents helped propel Israel to war in Gaza.
Here is an interesting contrast to this article.
https://web.facebook.com/MiddleEastEye/videos/1632820346783347/
The treatment of Palestinian Children under Israeli Detention.
The article about Palestinian Children evokes thoughts about the rights and wrongs of encouraging women and children into the forefront of activism, particularly where activism crosses the line into acts of violence, and sometimes deadly violence.
Further, where does the rule of law come into this? How are the authorities supposed to deal with law breakers? Are children above the law? Are children incapable of carrying out acts of violence, murder, being part of a terrorist network? If they are, do they not acknowledge that they will be therefore legitimate persons of interest, that they would be subject to interrogation?
If children are held to be not responsible for their actions and therefore shouldn’t be incarcerated or interrogated, then what does that say about the ethics of adults who educate their children to believe that such acts are their duty?