High Court to police: Explain withholding of Palestinian attackers’ bodies

The High Court of Justice on Monday ordered the Israel Police to explain why it was withholding the bodies of East Jerusalem Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis in recent months and had not returned the remains to their families for burial.

The ruling came in response to a petition filed by several families who said Israeli authorities have refused to return the bodies of their relatives despite their having agreed to the condition that they be buried in a low-key funeral.

Police were given three weeks to deliver an explanation to the court.

The court earlier this year intervened in a similar case, and ordered authorities to return the body of a Palestinian woman killed by Border Police guards in May as she attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem.

At the time, police told the court they feared the funerals for the deceased attackers, who were killed as they stabbed, shot or rammed Israelis with cars over the past seven months, would turn into mass rallies in support of further terror attacks. Police ultimately agreed to release the bodies after the families committed to hold private subdued funerals that would not include calls for further attacks.

The practice has been implemented inconsistently, particularly as the bodies of terrorists who attacked Israelis in the West Bank are under the purview of the Defense Ministry, while those killed within are under the jurisdiction of the Public Security Ministry.

After two Hebron-area Palestinian terrorists killed four people and wounded 16 in a shooting attack in central Tel Aviv in June, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman ordered a halt to the practice of returning the bodies of West Bank Palestinian attackers.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan in recent months has called for Israel to renew its policy during the Second Intifada to bury the remains of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks in a special cemetery, rather than return them to their families.

The issue has become a sore point with Palestinians. Posters of the dead are plastered on walls in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and residents hold frequent demonstrations calling for the release of the bodies.

Israeli officials have explained that the delay in returning attackers’ bodies is intended to lessen the significance attached to any particular attacker, and so reduce attendance at the funerals.

Since October, 34 Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence. At least 214 Palestinians have been killed, some two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.