Jordan: Terrorist's family forbidden from erecting mourning tent
Authorities prevent family of Alaa Abu Dheim, terrorist who killed eight in Jerusalem attack Thursday, from erecting tent and receiving mourners
Jordanian authorities prevented relatives of Alaa Abu Dheim, the terrorist responsible for the killing of eight at the Mercaz Harav seminary in Jerusalem on Thursday, from erecting a mourner's tent in the capital of Amman, Dheim's cousin told the Al Jazeera television station on Saturday.
Mohammad Abu Dheim, Alaa's cousin, said that the family attempted to set up a mourner's ten in order to receive well-wishers offering their condolences to the terrorist's family at their house in western Amman. They were surprised when Jordanian security forces arrived to the house and told them that they were prohibited from erecting the tent.
"The security forces requested that we take apart the mourner's tent that we had set up," Abu Dheim said. "Police officers told us that the mayor had decided to forbid the erection of a tent," he said adding that attempts by other family members to do the same were also thwarted.
Abu Dhaim also said the security forces were preventing well-wishers from arriving to the house and they were even confiscating their identity cards.
Alaa Abu Dheim, 20, was from Jabel Mukaber in east Jerusalem and worked as a driver perhaps even at the yeshiva where he went on the killing spree that left eight dead.
Police spokesman, Miki Rosenfeld, said on Friday that Abu Dheim had a blue identity card; meaning he was an Israel citizen and was thus allowed to move about freely. Dheim's neighbors remarked that he had been arrested four months ago but had been released several weeks prior to the attack.
A mourning tent draped with the green Hamas flag was set up next to the ruins of the Dheim home in east Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority has been trying to decipher whether or not someone "activated" Abu Dheim. The confusion stems from the fact that he was a known Hamas supporter -- as the green flag on his mourning tent indicates.
For the time being, there is some indication that the terrorist attack was carried out under orders from Hizbullah. The militant Shiite group has apparently contracted Palestinians to carry out its dirty work. The most prominent among them is Mohammad Shehadah whose house the IDF surrounded immediately following the attack on Thursday.
