Israeli minister orders to stop return bodies of Palestinian "terrorists"

Israel's Minister of Interior Affairs Gilad Erdan ordered the police on Tuesday to stop returning bodies of Palestinian assailants from East Jerusalem to their families, two weeks after Israel suspended the controversial practice.

"I've instructed the police to stop the returning of bodies of terrorists," Erdan wrote on his Facebook page. He said his decision was made following "outrageous" photos of a mourning march in East Jerusalem, attended by hundreds of people who shouted, "with spirit and blood we will redeem you, O holy victim."

In the overnight funeral, the body of Alaa Abu Jamal, a resident of the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem, was buried. Last October, he carried out a car-ramming and stabbing attack in central Jerusalem. He killed a 59-year-old Jewish Rabi and wounded two other Israelis before he was shot dead by the police.

Israeli authorities had held his body since October. Seventeen other bodies of attackers, including 11 from East Jerusalem, were held by Israel.

While bodies of attackers from the West Bank are usually returned to their families within a short time, bodies of attackers from annexed East Jerusalem, have been held by police since the beginning of the violent Palestinian uprising in mid-September.

On May 3, Israel's Supreme Court recommended that the police will "coordinate with the families and return the bodies of their sons before Ramadan," a holy Muslim month of fasting that begins in June.

The police stipulated the return in keeping the funerals with no more than 40 attendants and without shouting slogans.

A few bodies have been returned before Erdan ordered to resume the controversial ban.

The police itself oppose the ban. An unnamed police official told the Hebrew Ynet news website that the Abu Jamal's family met Israel's requirements since the march and the chanting of slogans were made outside the cemetery, and only 40 people attended the funeral itself.

Palestinians and human rights organizations have been criticizing the withholding of corpses, saying it violates the rights of the families to bury their loved ones and fans further unrest among Palestinians.

At least 203 Palestinians and 28 Israelis have been killed in an eight-month-long wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank. Endit