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Palestinian relatives of 19-year-old Kasem Mugrabi mourn at the family house in the neighborhood of Jebl Mukaber, east Jerusalem, Tuesday.Photo: APDefense Minister Ehud Barak called to expedite legal processes so that security forces could demolish homes of terrorists "close to the time of the attack" in order to deter future attacks.His comments came in response to Monday night's terror attack in Jerusalem, in which 19-year-old Kasem Mugrabi from east Jerusalem rammed his car into a group of IDF soldiers next to Jerusalem's Old City.NU/NRP faction head Uri Ariel blamed Barak and the legal establishment for the attack, saying that "the continuous delay in demolishing previous terrorists' houses, as well as freeing terrorists every few months as a gesture to the Palestinians, brought on this terror attack."The Mugrabi family, meanwhile, claimed that the teen did not perpetrate a terror attack, Israel Radio reported Tuesday morning. The family added that they blamed security forces for murdering him in cold blood, and that they were seeking to open an investigation into the matter.According to an initial police investigation, the teen had wanted to marry his cousin, and when she refused his offer, he decided to carry out the attack, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.He left his east Jerusalem home with the car that his parents had bought him and which was to be his when he got his driver's license, and went on the rampage.The investigation also found that the family was connected with Hamas, and that Mugrabi was not known to police.Police had set up small checkpoints on either side of the Mughrabi home in Jebl Mukaber on Tuesday, checking all traffic going in and out of the area, while keeping an eye on the family's home, preventing the crowd that had gathered there from erecting a mourning tent.Friends and family of Kasem gathered in and around the house, as a recorded Islamic prayer echoed in the background. The mourners eyed outsiders suspiciously, and whispers about a possible house demolition or reprisals from right-wing Jewish groups made their way through the crowd. Kasem's cousin, Raed Mughrabi, said that he did not believe media reports claiming the 19-year-old perpetrator of Monday night's attack was a member of Hamas, saying only he believed the incident was an accident, as other members of the Mughrabi family had asserted earlier in the day."It was a car accident," Mughrabi said, squinting into the sun. "It was just a car accident and they shot him and killed him. He was a normal person -all he wanted to do was work."But then Mughrabi seemed to contradict himself, verifying reports that Kasem had been upset over his marriage proposal, and deciding soon after to perpetrate an attack against Jews."It's true," Mughrabi said. "It hurt him that she said no - he was very upset." Other young men outside the home said they knew Kasem as a normal young man who wanted to work."He had just bought new clothes for Ramadan," said one of Kasem 's friends from school. "He was looking for a job - he just wanted to work, I don't know what happened to him."But the mood in Jebl Mukaber was tense nonetheless, even with the streets mostly empty for Ramadan, and few stores open for business.One woman, who pulled up in a van full of passengers told a reporter that, "they better not find out you're a Jew down there," before she drove off.Others gave blank stares and suspicious glances, as the sun glared down on the local mosque and the white stone houses that line the nearby valley.Also Tuesday, Israel Radio reported that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had praised the Jerusalem terror attack.An Islamic Jihad statement called the attack "a natural response to the criminal occupation," and Hamas statement echoed similar sentiments, calling it "a natural response to the continued Zionist attacks on the Palestinian nation, to settling and Judaization."Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri added that "the deed proves that the Palestinian nation can find new ways to fight the occupation."
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report.
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report.
By ABE SELIG AND JPOST.COM STAFF
As in the days of Noah....
