Honor killing in West Bank

The woman whose body was found stabbed to death last week was apparently the victim of an "honor killing."

Palestinian police said on Monday they arrested a 24-year-old who allegedly killed his aunt, whose body was found in the West Bank city of Ramallah six days ago.

According to Palestinian Authority security spokesperson Major Adnan Ad-Dimeiri, the alleged murderer of 30-year-old Halimah Ahmad Ash-Sheikh was arrested on evidence that he was responsible for the killing.

Ad-Dimeiri also said that the suspected confessed to the charges, and said that he killed her for reasons of so-called “family honor.”

Ad-Dimeiri said that, according to his affidavit, the suspect rented a car, drove his aunt to the city of Nablus, stopping in the village of An-Nabi Saleh to buy food, and stopped again to get out of the car to eat. He said the suspect stabbed his aunt and left the body in Ramallah, before driving home to the West Bank city of Qalqiliya. The suspect then went the same day to the police station with the victim’s husband to report her missing.

The spokesperson also said that, after finding the body and receiving information from the person who found it, police arrested the suspect 30 hours later with an estimated 4,000 Jordanian dinars (5,648 US dollars) in jewelry he stole from the victim, though he claimed that she had given them to him recently.

The victim, police said, was married six years ago and was a mother of seven.

Now, why would anyone think this was a true "honor killing" when the murderer was caught with the victim's jewelry? Do "honor killers" normally also act as "honor thieves?"

Either the murderer claimed it was an "honor killing" in order to be able to have a lighter sentence, or the hatred of women is so ingrained in the Palestinian Arab psyche that every case of femicide is, by definition, an "honor killing."

The husband also has some explaining to do...