Israeli convicted in revenge murder of Palestinian teen
An Israeli Jew was convicted of the revenge murder of a Palestinian teen who he and two teenage accomplices burned to death in the Jerusalem forest.
Yosef Ben-David, 31, of Jerusalem was found guilty April 19 of the kidnapping and murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir in July 2014. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
The court in February determined that Ben-David was mentally fit to be sentenced, rejecting his insanity plea that he should not be held responsible for his actions because of a history of mental illness.
“The court has found that at the time he committed the offense, the accused was not psychotic, fully understood the facts, was responsible for his actions, had no difficulty in understanding reality and had the capacity to prevent the crime,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement released after the conviction.
The teen’s father renewed his call for Ben-David’s house to be razed under the same policy that calls for the destruction of the homes of Palestinian terrorists.
The names of Ben-David’s accomplices, who were both 16 at the time of the killing, have not been released publicly. The accomplices were sentenced earlier this month: one to life in prison, the other to 21 years.
The three kidnapped Khdeir, then beat and burned him alive in the forest, soon after the bodies of three Jewish teens kidnapped and killed by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas were found in the West Bank. — jta
Israel’s Rabbinate releases list of ‘approved’ rabbis
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has released a list of rabbis around the world it trusts to confirm the authenticity of Jewish conversions. It includes two Americans who have been mired in scandal, and omits New York liberal Orthodox Rabbi Avi Weiss.
The list released April 19 features more than 100 rabbis, mostly from the United States.
Among them is Rabbi Mordecai Tendler, who was expelled in 2005 from the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America following allegations he had sexual affairs with several women, including some who had come to him for rabbinic counseling.
Also on the list is Rabbi Michael Broyde, who resigned from the council in 2014 after the Jewish Channel found he had written favorable comments about his own works online for years under the pseudonym “Rabbi Herschel Goldwasser.”
The list was released in response to a court petition demanding more transparency in how the Chief Rabbinate determines which Jewish conversions are legitimate. — jta