{"id":1159,"date":"2014-07-05T16:36:14","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T14:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2014-07-05T16:43:59","modified_gmt":"2014-07-05T14:43:59","slug":"four-families-grieve-one-is-under-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/2014-07-05\/four-families-grieve-one-is-under-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Four families grieve. One is under assault"},"content":{"rendered":"

The families of the three Israeli teens killed by their abductors have been the focus of a huge outpouring of national sympathy.<\/p>\n

But what about the family of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, who was burnt alive by his abductors? How have they been treated by Israel since the devastating news of Muhammad’s murder in Jerusalem last week?<\/p>\n

Here, in short, is what has happened to them.<\/p>\n

They have been subjected to a campaign, secretly waged by the Israeli police, to discredit them by suggesting that Muhammad was a closet gay and killed in a family feud.<\/p>\n

The father and close relatives have been forced to submit to intense and distressing questioning in police cells from the Israeli security services, all in an attempt to give greater plausibility to their planted rumours with “confessions” from the family.<\/p>\n

And now it emerges that a 15-year-old cousin of Muhammad’s, visiting for the summer from the US, was the victim in video footage of a savage beating by armed Israeli police. They\u00a0kicked and punched him relentlessly after he was cuffed and lying on the ground. He is still\u00a0under arrest, apparently without charge.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The US state department \u2013 so eloquent in denouncing the killing of the three Israeli teens \u2013 is apparently lost for words when it comes to the mistreatment\u00a0of one of its citizens.<\/p>\n

Here is the horrifying video of Tarek Abu Khdeir’s beating:<\/p>\n