Muhammad
Elayyan makes the victory sign after the body of his slain son Bahaa
Elayyan is released by Israeli authorities after being withheld for ten
months, on Sept. 1, 2016.
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli
authorities returned the body of Palestinian Bahaa Elayyan on Thursday
at dawn, allowing his family -- which has been leading the movement
advocating for Israel to release slain Palestinians' bodies -- to bury
him 325 days after his death.Elayyan, a 22-year-old resident of the East
Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir, was killed alongside
another Palestinian
after they attacked an Israeli bus on Oct. 13,
killing three Israelis with knives and a gun. His body was buried at
the al-Mujahidin cemetery near the Old City of Jerusalem, in accordance
with stipulations from Israeli police, which has allowed the release of
bodies of slain Palestinians from East Jerusalem accused of "terrorism"
on the condition that they
no longer have funerals in their neighborhoods or villages,
but would instead be buried in cemeteries chosen by the police.The
stipulation comes amid a wider set of preconditions for the release, as
only 25 people were allowed to attend Elayyan’s funeral, and his family
was made to pay a 20,000 shekel ($5,292) “insurance fee” to make sure
they abided by the rules.Israeli forces were heavily deployed in the
area ahead of the funeral, as attendees were searched three times at
checkpoints and saw their phones confiscated during the burial. Israeli
forces also reportedly prevented people who were not on the submitted
list from entering the cemetery.Israeli police also reportedly
photographed people inside the cemetery.“One of the most difficult
moments in life is for parents to bury their children,” Muhammad
Elayyan, Elayyan’s father, told reporters. “Israel holds the bodies of
martyrs as a policy to punish parents and pressure them.”A lawyer and
activist, Muhammad Elayyan has spearheaded a movement by the families of
slain Palestinians demanding that Israeli authorities return the
bodies, said that his son’s body was severely altered by the long period
of time it had spent frozen in Israeli morgues.“Since the body was held
in freezers for ten months, substantial changes occurred to Bahaa’s
features and color,” Muhammad Elayyan said. “his eyes sunk inside his
skull as if he did not have any, muscles atrophied and his skin peeled
off easily.”“It was difficult to identify him; except that I am his
father and I know him well,” he added.Muhammad Elayyan said that there
were three bullet marks on Bahaa’s body, including one in the chest,
near the heart.The United Nations released a report in May stating that
Israeli authorities have prohibited autopsies from being conducted on
Palestinian corpses, and that
the bodies were kept in poor and inhumane conditions, “stacked on top of each other.”“The
bodies returned to the families are often disfigured, sometimes beyond
recognition, denying the families the right to accord, with dignity,
final religious rites,” the report read.Nonetheless, Muhammad Elayyan
said that he and Elayyan’s mother were able to say their last goodbyes
to their son before the burial.“We had loving moments with Bahaa and
words would ruin these moments,” he said.Mourners remembered Elayyan as a
socially involved young man who was invested in cultural activities in
East Jerusalem. He was described as a scout leader, the founder of an
initiative called “Town’s Youth,” and
one of the organizers of a “reading chain”
around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem in 2014.Israeli
authorities continue to hold the bodies of 12 slain Palestinians accused
of committing attacks against Israelis, including including three women
and two residents of occupied East Jerusalem, among them
Abd al-Muhsen Hassuneh, 21, and
Muhammad Abu Khalaf, 20.The families of the slain Palestinians have appealed the Israeli Supreme Court for months, with the
court ruling in May
that all of the bodies of Palestinians held by Israel be released to
their families before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in
June.However, after releasing the body of Alaa Abu Jamal, Israel’s
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan
ordered that Israeli police suspend the return of the bodies
just a few weeks after the ruling, claiming that the funeral encouraged
"incitement" against the state of Israel.The families have since had to
return to court to negotiate the release of their slain family
members.In early August, Israeli internal intelligence service Shin Bet
announced that Elayyan’s body would be released imminently,
only to backtrack on its decision the very same day.In
mid-August, Issa Qaraqe, the head of the Palestinian Committee of
Prisoners’ Affairs, made a statement saying that Israeli authorities had
approved
the “gradual release” of slain Palestinian bodies.Elayyan’s burial comes two days after Israeli authorities
released the body of fellow Jerusalemite Thaer Abu Ghazaleh for burial after withholding it for ten months.Israeli authorities have
dramatically escalated their policy of withholding slain Palestinian bodies
since a wave of unrest swept across the Palestinian territory and
Israel in October, during which time 220 Palestinians have been killed
by Israelis and 32 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians.Human
rights organizations have widely condemned the policy, with prisoners’
rights group Addameer calling it a form of “collective punishment”
against Palestinians who had not been accused of any wrongdoing, also
noting that it “adds to the severe grief and trauma of families of the
deceased.”Muhammad Elayyan has been an outspoken advocate speaking up
against the series of punitive measures carried out against the families
of slain Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks against
Israelis.The Elayyan family home
was demolished in January. In June, Muhammad Elayyan was
detained by Israeli forces for several days for participating in protests calling for the release of bodies.
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