Israel’s refusal to return bodies of synagogue attack perpetrators harms innocent families

26 November 2014

The bodies of ‘Udai and Ghasan Abu Jamal, who carried out the horrendous attack in a synagogue in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof, have not yet been returned to their families. According to media reports, Israel Police legal adviser Shaul Gordon notified the families that the possibility of withholding the bodies at this stage was under consideration, “given that handing over the body, which will be followed by a funeral procession, a burial, erection of headstone, and so on, may glorify the memory of the terrorist and make him a role model for others.” Gordon added that, according to security estimates, such a step may “serve as a deterrent to reduce motivation for carrying out such attacks.”

Israel’s refusal to return the bodies is yet another form of harm to innocents that authorities justify citing deterrence. This step does not punish the deceased but their relatives, who were not involved in the actions of the former and are not responsible for them. Refusing to allow the families to bury their dead causes them considerable distress, impedes their process of mourning, and prevents them from performing out the traditional and religious rituals that mark the death of a loved one.

B’Tselem calls upon the authorities to make a clear distinction between the grave actions of the deceased and any harm to their relatives, who are not suspected of any offense, and to refrain from imposing collective punishment, which is immoral and contravenes international law.

Israel has refused in the past to return the bodies of persons who carried out attacks to their families. For a review of this policy, see 1999 report “Captive Corpses”, published by B’Tselem and HaMoked: The Centre for Defence of the Individual.

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The Baten al-Hawa neighborhood. Photo: Omri Eran-Vardi, Activestills, 4 January 2025

East Jerusalem

The ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem is happening now - Large Israeli forces are currently entering the Silwan neighborhood to evict 11 Palestinian families from their homes.

Amidst the ongoing illegal and lethal Israeli-American offensive against Iran, Israel is expanding its ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem, throwing Palestinian families into the streets.Initial reports from the ground: Police forces have sealed off the entire neighborhood and are preventing anyone includes journalists from entering. Preliminary reports indicate violence and the arrest of family members. At this very moment, settlers brought to evacuate the houses are actively throwing the families' belongings out of the windows.The eviction of 11 families, which is taking place at this very moment, marks the beginning of a massive displacement wave: approximately 2,200 people in Silwan are facing an imminent threat of forced displacement - 150 families (1,500 individuals) in al-Bustan and 90 families (700 individuals) in Baten al-Hawa.The forcible displacement follows the Israeli Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the appeals of 20 Palestinian families from Baten al-Hawa, leaving 136 individuals at immediate risk of losing their homes.This is the reality of systematic, institutionalized violence and a clear manifestation of an Israeli policy aimed at engineering the demographic balance and "Judaizing" the neighborhood by exploiting discriminatory laws. These measures are designed to expand Israeli presence and control over one of the most politically and religiously sensitive areas in the region, serving as a crucial component of the broader ethnic cleansing currently unfolding across the West Bank.

25 March 2026

שכונת בטן אל-הווא. צילום: עמרי ערן-ורדי, אקטיבסטילס, 4.1.25

East Jerusalem

Ongoing ethnic cleansing: Home demolitions, expulsion and dispossession in Silwan

The Silwan area, located south of the Old City of Jerusalem and annexed to the city’s municipal boundaries, is home to some 20,000 Palestinian residents. Its unique location next to the Old City, near al-Aqsa Mosque for Palestinians and the Temple Mount for Jews, puts it at the forefront of the Israeli regime’s campaign of dispossession and displacement in Jerusalem, as part of a broader plan to cleanse the area of its Palestinian residents and Judaize the neighborhoods surrounding the Old City. This plan is actualized through several racist mechanisms, including discriminatory legislation such as the Absentee Property Law and various municipal by-laws; the deliberate absence of detailed planning schemes for construction in Palestinian neighborhoods; and designation of land as national parks or other national projects in order to justify the dispossession. In Silwan, joint efforts by settler organizations and state authorities to Judaize the area are focused on three projects currently underway: excavation of the so-called Herodian Street, demolition of homes in al-Bustan neighborhood, and eviction of residents from Baten al-Hawa.These efforts place the residents of Silwan under very real threat of eviction from their homes and dispossession of their land. Over the past two years, evictions in the neighborhoods of Baten al-Hawa and Wadi Hilwa, where the City of David tourist site is located, together with home demolitions in al-Bustan, have left hundreds of residents homeless.In Baten al-Hawa, from October 2015 to April 2026, 33 families were evicted – a total of 77 people, 37 of them children. Fifteen of them were evicted in March 2026. Now, another 53 families are facing expulsion – a total of 237 people, 130 of them children.Many Palestinian families challenged eviction orders in court, but their petitions were dismissed in a series of rulings issued in late 2025, ordering 157 neighborhood residents to vacate their homes. In several cases, the evicted families were even ordered to pay the settlers tens of thousands of shekels in compensation. As of February 2026, 28 families from Baten al‑Hawa face immediate risk of eviction after the court denied them leave to appeal, ruling legal proceedings in their cases had been exhausted. Several additional court cases concerning dozens of neighborhood families are still pending before the Magistrates’ Court or awaiting decisions on appeals to the Supreme Court.Meanwhile, in the nearby neighborhood of al-Bustan, 48 homes were demolished from October 2023 to April 2026 following demolition orders issued by the Jerusalem Municipality. Fourteen of them were demolished in March-April 2026, with 56 residents evicted, 20 of them children. The remaining 123 families are in danger of expulsion – a total of 1,450 people, 900 of them children. The municipality has issued demolition orders for 17 of the homes.In 2010, the Jerusalem Municipality under Mayor Nir Barkat proposed establishing a tourist park named King’s Garden on al-Bustan land, as a direct extension of the Jerusalem Walls National Park and the City of David archaeological site. The latter has been operated since the 1990s by Elad, a settler organization that openly works to Judaize Silwan. In early February 2026, four bulldozers working in the service of the Jerusalem Municipality entered al-Bustan and demolished walls, fences, storage structures, gates and commercial properties belonging to neighborhood residents, without prior notice. The demolition was justified through the manipulative use of a municipal by-law ostensibly intended to allow the “removal of obstacles from the street.” The targeted structures, however, had been standing for years on land that was never designated as a street. Despite a District Court order to halt the demolition, the bulldozers continued destroying buildings in the neighborhood.To prevent these demolitions and evictions, the international community must urgently and effectively intervene to demand an end to the Israeli regime’s criminal policy of forcible transfer.The goal: full Judaization of SilwanImmediately after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, it annexed some 70,000 of the West Bank in violation of international law, and brought some of them under Jerusalem’s municipal jurisdiction. In the years that followed, the city’s socio-geographical composition was reengineered, and the state allocated about one third of the annexed territory to building Israeli settlements such as Armon Hanatziv, Gilo, East Talpiot, Ramot, Neve Ya’akov, Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramat Shlomo, French Hill, Har Homa and Givat Hamatos. The official purpose of these settlements was to secure a Jewish majority in Jerusalem and cement Jewish territorial contiguity. Another tool used by the authorities to Judaize the city has been the establishment of Jewish enclaves in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, such as the Shimon Hatzadik compound on land belonging to Sheikh Jarrah, or the so-called renewed Jewish Quarter within the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. The actions pursued by Israel in Baten al-Hawa and Wadi Hilwa in Silwan follow the same path.Silwan lies within what is also known as the Holy Basin, which includes the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah, a‑Tur (Mount of Olives), Wadi al‑Joz, Ras al‑‘Amud and Jabal al‑Mukabber. Due to its geographic location, Silwan is rich in archaeological and historical sites, which Israel uses to justify planning and zoning policies that restrict Palestinian development and promote Israeli control in the area. Declaring land as a national park, archaeological site or nature reserve serves, in practice, as a tool for dispossessing Palestinian residents of their land. Moreover, the development of these areas as heritage sites is carried out in close cooperation with far-right NGOs, particularly Ateret Cohanim and Elad. This joint effort serves a clear political objective: creating a Jewish strip of territory that severs the contiguity of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and cuts them off from the rest of the West Bank.The takeover and expulsion mechanism: Baten al-HawaThe expulsion of Baten al‑Hawa’s residents is the first time an entire Palestinian community in East Jerusalem has been forcibly displaced since 1967. It relies primarily on the 1950 Absentee Property Law, which applies to the property of Palestinians expelled from their homes during the 1948 Nakba, and on the 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law, which effectively allows only Jews to claim title to property owned before 1948. Another route used by settler organizations to take over properties operates through the office of the Guardian General, a statutory entity formed when the state was established and empowered to administer Jewish trusts (‘hekdesh’) in East Jerusalem. These are properties owned by Jewish trusts before 1948 and dedicated to public purposes, which are now managed via a trustee. The use of a trust to claim title to property provides legal justification under Israeli law for the expulsion of Palestinian residents from their homes. In 2001, the Jerusalem District Court approved the Guardian General’s decision to transfer management of the Benvenisti Trust to members of the Ateret Cohanim organization. In 2002, the land where the buildings housing most of the families facing displacement was transferred to this trust by the Guardian General, and a further three-dunam plot, housing 10 more Palestinian families, was sold to the trust in 2005.Pursuant to the Absentee Property Law and the Legal and Administrative Matters Law, in combination with the fact that the Guardian General facilitates Jewish takeover of homes previously owned by Jews, Palestinian residents who lawfully purchased these homes are being stripped of their property and left defenseless.Backed by private security guards paid for by the Israeli Ministry of Housing to the tune of hundreds of millions of shekels per year, Jewish settlers in the neighborhood harass Palestinian residents, violently confront them, and frequently get Palestinians arrested by the police on various pretexts. In addition, as settlers moved into the neighborhood, Israel Police and Border Police presence increased dramatically. Officers also use violence against Palestinians, issue threats, detain minors and disrupt daily life. And so, even before they are physically expelled from their homes, Baten al‑Hawa’s residents suffer relentless abuse, fully backed by Israeli state institutions and security forces, which makes their lives unbearable and is intended to push them to leave “voluntarily.” Palestinian residents also suffer from gross, ongoing neglect in terms of public infrastructure and services that should be provided by the Jerusalem Municipality: many streets are unpaved, garbage is not collected and left to pile up in the streets, and street lighting is limited.Gross discrimination between Jews and Palestinians under Israel’s apartheid regime is not confined to discriminatory legislation. It is also manifested in planning, budgeting and service provision. While Palestinian residents of Silwan endure deliberate neglect underpinned by systematic state violence, settlers in the Jewish enclaves in the neighborhood, such as the Yemenite Village or Kfar Hashiloah within Baten al‑Hawa, or the City of David in Wadi Hilwa, enjoy around the clock security and modern services and infrastructure, including paved access routes and wider, better‑lit streets, financed in part by taxpayer money.These families are being forcibly displaced in violation of international law with the full backing of Israel’s Supreme Court, which, while accepting the Baten al‑Hawa families’ claim that they purchased their homes lawfully, ruled that the settlers’ property rights prevail,In Silwan, as in other Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem and Palestinian villages across the West Bank, the Israeli regime uses every tool at its disposal to dispossess Palestinians of their land. The goal of removing Palestinians from their homes is pursued out in the open, through legislation manifesting the core features of Israel’s apartheid regime, via the court system, and in cooperation with settler organizations, with matching efforts to make Palestinians’ lives unbearable through systematic neglect and violence perpetrated by both official and unofficial actors.This is the reality of systematic, institutionalized violence in which Palestinian residents of Jerusalem live daily under Israel’s apartheid regime, stripped of their most basic rights. Confronting this reality requires urgent and immediate intervention by members of the international community.

22 March 2026

מימין לשמאל: אחמד, מוסטפא, מועתז, אייהם ומוחמד, צילום: עאמר עארורי, בצלם, 22.1.23

East Jerusalem

Wadi Qadum, East Jerusalem: Israel Police detain five Palestinian minors without notifying parents for over 6 hours, and interrogate them without an adult on their behalf present

On Thursday, 19 January 2023, at around 5:30 P.M., about 10 Israel Police officers arrived in the neighborhood of Wadi Qadum in East Jerusalem and grabbed five Palestinian residents between the ages of 12 and 15. They crowded all five into a police car and held them there for about an hour. At around 6:30, the teens were taken to the police station on Salah a-Din Street. There, they were made to sit on chairs facing a wall in a very cold, air-conditioned room and forbidden to talk to each other. At around 7:00 P.M., a lawyer arrived and explained their rights to them, and only then did the police allow them to use the bathroom. Meanwhile, the parents of four of the boys arrived at the station, but the officers refused to let them in, and they had no choice but to wait for their sons outside for hours. Each of the teeens was interrogated alone, without an adult present on his behalf, for about an hour or an hour and a half. After some of them refused to sign a statement in Hebrew and insisted they hadn’t thrown stones, the interrogators reportedly humiliated them, swore at them, and in some instances resorted to physical violence. For example, one officer pulled 12-year-old Mustafa a-Salaymeh’s chair out from under him, making him fall. An interrogator hit Ayham a-Salaymeh, also 12 years old, on the neck, while Mu'taz a-Salaymeh, 14, was hit on the neck and face by an interrogator who also pulled his hair. When the interrogations were over, the teens were kept at the station and given no explanation of what lay ahead. At around 11:00 P.M., the officers gave them slices of bread. Around midnight, after Nawaf a-Salaymeh, the father of Ayham and Ahmad, posted NIS 5,000 (~USD 1,400) in bail for each of the five boys, they were all sent home for five days’ house arrest. About 10 minutes after Nawaf and his sons got home, a police officer called and demanded that Ahmad return to the station on the pretext that his interrogation had not been recorded. Ahmad went back to the station with his father and was again interrogated alone, exhausted and scared, for about an hour and a half. This time, he signed the statement. When he asked what he was signing, the interrogator replied it was none of his business. Five teens were abducted from a street without being told what they were suspected of or where they were being taken. They were interrogated at a police station, under threats and pressure, while their parents were not notified or allowed in the room, and were held for more than six hours. For the first two hours, they were forbidden to go to the bathroom and given nothing to drink. All the while, the parents of four boys were not allowed into the station and forced to wait outside until their sons were released. Arresting children in this way is part of Israel's overall oppressive policy in East Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank. This case is no exception, but part of Israel's systemic treatment of Palestinian minors, including refusal to uphold the special protections granted minors by international law, which are also granted minors under Israeli law. Instead, the Israeli law enforcement system treats Palestinian minors as part of a hostile population, all of whom – teenagers and adults alike – are presumed guilty unless proven otherwise, and employs extreme measures against them it would not dare use against other populations in Israel. The boys described what happened to them that evening in testimonies they gave to B'Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 22 January 2023: Muhammad a-Salaymeh (15): On Thursday, 19 January 2023, at around 5:30 in the afternoon, I was on my way home from visiting a friend in the neighborhood of Ras al-‘Amud with some other friends – Ahmad and Ayham, who are brothers, and Mustafa and Mu'taz. We were going down the stairs that lead from Ras al-‘Amud to our neighborhood, Wadi Qadum, when suddenly we saw about 10 people from the occupation forces and they arrested us. I didn't understand what was going on, and it was very confusing. One of the officers put his arm around my neck, which hurt a lot, and pulled me by force into the car. We all sat there one on top of the other, and it was very crowded. First, they took us to Ras al-‘Amud and we waited there in the car, near the police station. I asked the officer for water, but he ignored me. We sat in the car for about an hour, and then they took us to the police station on Salah a-Din. There, they put us in a room, made us sit on chairs facing a wall and told us not to talk to each other. A police officer threatened us that whoever spoke would be beaten, so I kept silent. After about half an hour, a lawyer came and explained our rights to us. After he left, we were taken to the bathroom one by one. After I got back from the bathroom, I saw that Mu’taz and Mustafa were being taken away for interrogation. Then they also took me to an interrogation room. The interrogator asked me to write my name on an electronic screen, the kind you sign when you use a credit card. He also asked me to write the name of the lawyer who came earlier, and then he said: "You’re accused of throwing stones at a police car." I told him it wasn't me, and he said my friends had admitted to throwing the stones. I told him again that it wasn't true, and that we were just going home together, and that they couldn’t have admitted to something we didn't do. He swore at me and threatened that if I didn't sign the paper on the table, he’d hit me. I was afraid of him and signed the paper. I don't know what I signed, because it was in Hebrew. I sat in the interrogation room for about an hour, and then I was taken back to the room we were in before and sat on a chair. Some of my friends were there and some were still being interrogated. It was only around 11:00 P.M. that they gave us a piece of bread to eat. I was really hungry. About an hour later, we were let go and put under house arrest for five days. One of the parents posted my bail, which was NIS 5,000. Mu'taz a-Salaymeh (14): When they arrested us, I didn't exactly understand what was happening and where the police officers had come from. They grabbed us all by the neck. I almost choked when the officer wrapped his arm around my neck and pulled me into a police car along with the others. They put us in the car one on top of the other. Two officers sat up front. When I told them in Arabic that my legs were hurting because of the way we were sitting, one of them said: “If you don’t shut up, I’ll chop your leg off.” From that moment on, I kept quiet. We drove to the police station in Ras al-‘Amud and waited there in the car for about an hour. We asked the officers for water, but they ignored us. My mouth was parched, I was so thirsty. Then we got to a police station on Salah a-Din Street. They put us in a very cold room with an air conditioner that was running on cooling. They made us each sit on a chair facing the wall and told us not to talk. When we asked the officer to turn the air conditioner off because we were shivering with cold, he refused. Over the next hour, we asked several times to use the bathroom, but they ignored us. Only after the lawyer who came to talk to us left, an officer took each of us separately to the bathroom. While he was taking me, he swore at me on the way and said obscene things about my mother and sister. They took Mustafa and me away separately for interrogation. In the interrogation, they showed me a video of people throwing stones. I told the interrogator I didn’t know who they were and that I hadn’t done anything. He shouted at me and said I was a liar. The whole time, I was afraid he would hit me. He kept swearing and once, after I shouted back at him: "Why are you cursing my mother?", he pulled my hair and punched me in the face and neck. I refused to sign the document. The interrogator said it was my statement, but it was in Hebrew so I refused to sign it. He laughed at me and said: "So don't sign, cross-eyes!” It was humiliating. After about an hour and a half of interrogation, I was taken back to the room. At around 11:00 P.M., they gave us some bread to eat. About an hour later, they let us go and put us under house arrest for five days, after posting NIS 5,000 bail each. Ayham a-Salaymeh (12): When we got to the police station at Salah a-Din, I asked to use the bathroom but the police officer refused to take me. Only when the lawyer arrived and I told him I had to go to the bathroom, did the officers take me there. Then they brought me back to the room. The lawyer was still there, and told me he’d being explaining to everyone that the interrogators had no right to hit us or swear at us. Then he left and the officers started taking each of us away separately for interrogation. In my interrogation, I was really scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. The interrogator showed me a video and asked if I was on it. I said I wasn’t, and he shouted at me and asked if those were my friends and brother. I said I didn't know who those people were, and then he hit me on the neck and said that if I admitted to throwing stones, they’d let me go home. I told him again I hadn’t done anything. He gave me a document in Hebrew to sign, without explaining what it said. I signed it, because I was afraid he’d hit me again. The whole time, the interrogator was yelling at me and banging his hand on the table. Ahmed a-Salaymeh (13): They put us in a room that was very cold, because the air conditioner was on cooling instead of heating. They made us sit on iron chairs facing the wall and wait. After a lawyer talked to us, they took me to the bathroom. On the way, the officer who was taking me there swore at me and cursed my mother and sister. Then they interrogated me and showed me a video of people throwing stones in Wadi Qadum. The interrogator said that if I admitted to throwing stones, I’d go home. But I told him I honestly hadn’t thrown stones. He cursed my mother, insulted me, showed me the video again and asked who it was throwing stones. I told him I didn't know, and then he picked a glass of water up from the table and threw it at me. It didn’t hit me. I refused to sign the statement and then the interrogator said I could go. When I was almost out the door, he kicked me in my backside. They let us all go late at night. My father took Ayham and me home, and after about 10 minutes the police called him and demanded he bring me back to the station. When we got there, I was interrogated alone again. The interrogator told me they hadn’t recorded the previous interrogation and that was why they’d brought me in again. He asked me the same questions about throwing stones, and again I denied it. I was really tired, and this time I signed the document in Hebrew. When I asked the interrogator what it said, he said it was none of my business. Nawaf a-Salaymeh (47), a father of six including Ayham and Ahmad: On Thursday, 19 January 2023, at around 6:00 P.M., a kid from the neighborhood told me he’d seen the occupation forces arresting my two sons and three other boys. I immediately called the Wadi Hilweh information center and they put me in touch with a lawyer. The lawyer made some inquiries and told me my children were being held at the police station on Salah a-Din. After about an hour, at around 7:00, I arrived at the station with some of the other boys’ parents, but the police officers wouldn’t let us in to see our children. We stood outside in the cold for about four hours. At around 11:00, an officer came out of the station and demanded I post NIS 5,000 in bail for every boy. At around midnight, they were released. They came out exhausted, freezing and hungry. A few minutes after I got back home with Ayham and Ahmad, the police called and demanded I bring Ahmad back to the station because they hadn’t recorded his interrogation. I took him to the station and they interrogated him alone. When he came out, about an hour later, he told me they’d asked again if he’d taken part in the stone-throwing.

9 March 2023