BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led denunciations of the murder of a Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem, which sparked clashes between local residents and Israeli police yesterday.

The body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khedir was found charred in the Jerusalem Forest yesterday morning, soon after police received a report of a kidnapping in the Shuafat neighbourhood. Police are considering a number of possible motives for the murder, but there are fears that this may be an act of revenge for the murder of three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were discovered on Monday.

Netanyahu condemned the killing of Abu Khedir as a “reprehensible murder”. He called on “all sides not to take the law into their own hands” and noted that “Israel is a nation of laws and everyone must act according to the law.” During the day, Israeli police clashed with local Arab residents in East Jerusalem, especially in Shuafat and Beit Hanina, where a pipe bomb was thrown at police.

Meanwhile, opposition leader and Labour head Isaac Herzog said that if the killing of Abu Khedir was a nationalist-motivated hate crime, then it would constitute an “assassination” and an “act of terror.” He said that he was “extremely disturbed by the fighting in Jerusalem” and declared “Jews and Arabs will live here forever and will have to find a way to live side by side with each other.” Earlier in the day, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called the killing “a horrible and barbaric act which I strongly condemn. This is not our way.”

Yesterday evening several thousand Israelis gathered in a central Jerusalem square to protest against the violence, under the slogan “We mourn, we don’t take vengeance,” in reference to the three murdered Israeli teenagers.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing of Abu Khedir “appalling” while Foreign Secretary William Hague added his condemnation, saying it is “vital” that those responsible be “held accountable.” The US State Department also issues a strong condemnation of the killing.