Israeli troops attack march commemorating Abu Khdeir

As hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the Shoafat neighborhood of east al-Qods ('Jerusalem') Thursday, one year after 16-year old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was brutally tortured and burned alive by a group of fanatic right-wing Israelis, Israeli troops amassed around the neighborhood and attacked the marchers with tear gas and pepper spray.

The march was followed by a commemoration ceremony that included Christian and Muslim leaders, and one Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament.

Israeli riot police deployed throughout the area around the march and ceremony, despite the fact that both events were entirely non-violent.

The Israeli police attacked the marchers when they attempted a sit-in near the place where Abu Khdeir was killed.

The location where Abu Khdeir was tortured and brutally murdered is the site of the former Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, where Israeli forces committed a massacre of more than 100 civilians in 1948 during the fabrication of the state of Israel.

It is now the site of an Israeli settlement known as ' Geva Benyamin', and a forest.

As the marchers neared the site, Israeli forces attacked the protest, tear gassing the demonstrators and pepper-spraying Jordanian journalist Nibal Farsakh and an international peace activist directly in the eyes.

The police also shoved and hit a number of the demonstrators.

In memory of his son, Hussein Abu Khdeir has said “We don’t forget him. We burn on the inside every time we remember the way he was murdered”.

"We hold the Israeli Government responsible for this crime and the culture of impunity in which Israeli settler have so vilely and continuously assaulted Palestinian civilians, and we join Mohammed’s parents in demanding accountability for the killing of their child and demanding justice for him and for all the Palestinian children that have been brutally killed by the occupying forces and settlers in the name of this illegitimate and belligerent occupation.

In this regard, we insist again that the Israeli Government, the Israeli occupying forces and Israeli settler militias belong on the list of grave violators of child rights in the context of the Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, and we will not relent in calling for such listing in the face of ongoing violations and crimes against our innocent and defenseless children."