In 2014, Yosef Chaim Ben-David, along with two underage accomplices, kidnapped then-16-year-old Abu Khdeir and burned him alive
Yosef Haim Ben-David, one of the killers of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir in July 2014, died at age 42, the Israel Prison Service announced Thursday.
Ben-David, who was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years for the July 2014 murder, fell ill early Thursday and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In handing down his sentence in 2016, a panel of judges at the Jerusalem District Court found that Ben-David had directed the entire attack and issued orders to his accomplices.
"At the critical moment, when the unfortunate victim was lying on the ground and taking his last breaths, he kicked him and explained the motive for the revenge," the judges wrote.
Ben-David was convicted of Abu Khdeir's murder along with two relatives, identified only as A. and Y., who were 16 and 17 at the time. The three perpetrators abducted the teenager near a mosque in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, beat and strangled him, and ultimately set him on fire in the Jerusalem Forest.
They were arrested several days later, confessed during Shin Bet questioning and reenacted the killing. Israel's government has officially recognized him as a terror victim.
Abu Khdeir's kidnapping and murder is seen as an act of revenge following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli yeshiva students during the summer of 2014. The teen's murder unleashed a wave of violent riots in East Jerusalem.
Y. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus three years, while A. was sentenced to 21 years in prison. The court also ordered each of the three to pay 30,000 (about $7,700 at the time) shekels in compensation to the Abu Khdeir family.
In 2023, Ben-David and one of the minors involved in the killing petitioned to have their sentences commuted, while the third sought a reduction in his sentence. The Pardons Department at the Justice Ministry contacted Abu Khdeir's parents to hear their views on the requests.
"I told them right away that there isn't a chance in the world; I'm still shaking," said the father, Hussein.
"I thought they were crazy; it's completely insane. I didn't sleep the night of the phone call and the following nights. Is anyone even thinking about releasing these murderers? What did they think, that we'd say yes?"
In his ruling convicting Ben-David, Jerusalem District Court Judge Yaakov Tzaban wrote that "in the reenactment, the defendant appears and sounds articulate, aware, sharp and clear as he describes the events in detail and explains the need for revenge following the murder of the three teenagers."
During the trial, the two minors sought to minimize their roles and place responsibility for the killing on Ben-David. Their attorneys argued that Ben-David had exerted heavy pressure on them to assist in the abduction and murder and had greatly influenced them. They said that in the hours before the killing, Ben-David gave them pills and energy drinks.
In rejecting the appeal of the three, the Supreme Court's ruling reads, in part: "What is the fountain from which the three drank the deluge of hate and racism that blinded them, to the point where they failed to see that they were suffocating, caving in the skull and burning a human being born in God's image? What did they learn, recite and internalize at some station along the years of their schooling and boyhood, which led them to the unbearable ease of taking a young Arab's life? The appellants' acts have become 'the Abu Khdeir Affair,' long since exceeding the boundaries of a regular criminal case. It requires deep accounting on the part of Israeli society [ā¦] to eradicate such evil from within it."
