Israel to withhold returning of bodies of Palestinian "terrorists"

Israel's government said on Saturday that a cemetery for Palestinian "terrorists" will be constructed in order not to return bodies of assailants to their families in the West Bank.

The move came after a string of attacks on Thursday and Friday, in which Palestinians killed a Jewish teen girl and a 48-year-old man in the West Bank.

Over the recent nine months of Palestinian unrest, Israel has been withholding bodies of attackers as a punitive measure. The practice was implemented mainly against attackers who were residents of annexed East Jerusalem.

While bodies of attackers from the West Bank are usually returned to their families within a short time, the police, which is in charge of bodies of attackers from east Jerusalem, have been held since the beginning of the unrest 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 Muslim holy month of fasting that begins in June.

Following the petition, many of the corpses were returned, but a few are still kept in Israel.

Former defense minister, Moshe Ya'alon, objected this practice, but his newly-appointed successor, Avigdor Lieberman of the far-right "Israel Our Home" party, is a vocal supporter of it. Lieberman, who has been pushing for the decision, says that avoiding Palestinian families from burying their loved ones will "deter" attackers.

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 211 Palestinians and 33 Israelis have been killed since mid-September. Endit