Israel returns second of 10 Jerusalem terrorist corpses to family

Musab al-Ghazali, 26, shot dead in December after attempting to stab a Border Police officer in IDF Square.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Updated: MARCH 1, 2016 03:16
Ambulance (photo credit: TAZPIT)
Ambulance
(photo credit: TAZPIT)
The second of 10 terrorists’ corpses held by the State to avert more deadly violence in the capital was returned to his family members in east Jerusalem under the cloak of night during the early hours of Monday morning.
Musab al-Ghazali, 26, was shot last December while attempting to stab a Border Police officer to death in the capital’s IDF Square, located outside the Old City’s walls. His body was transferred on the precondition that his family eschew violence and hold a modest funeral.
The agreement also included a stipulation barring the family from erecting a mourning tent, which has repeatedly proven to engender an atmosphere of incitement and deadly violence.
He was buried without incident at a cemetery by the Old City’s Lion’s Gate with roughly three dozen family members present, police said.
On February 15, the body of Ahmad Abu Shaaban was transferred to family members in the capital’s Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud during the early morning hours for burial.
Abu Shaaban was shot as he tried to continue a stabbing spree on a bus after moderately to seriously wounding a 70-year-old woman at the capital’s central bus station in October.
The transfer of the corpses being held comes amid the government’s controversial mandate to delay the return of terrorists’ bodies since the latest round of deadly violence carried out in the capital.
The practice, adopted by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, and supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is intended to prevent the cycle of violence and incitement frequently associated with the return of terrorist bodies.
Deeming the return of the corpses “a victory for the Arab MKs who met with the families of the terrorists,” the group Almagor, which advocates on behalf of the families of terrorism victims, threatened to protest shortly before Abu Shaaban’s body was returned.
Almagor has contended that returning corpses of terrorists is “a slap in the face of the families of [IDF soldiers killed in Gaza] Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, whose bodies have yet to be returned.”
It remains unclear when the remaining eight corpses will be released.