A new type of "honor killing" - and an old one

Usually so-called "honor killings" are against women whose actions embarrass their families by spending too much time with unrelated men.

Now there's a new twist: families who kill their own flesh and blood because they allegedly spend too much time with Zionists:

Fifteen- year-old Ra’ed Sawalha was tortured and hung by his family members who accused him of collaborating with Israeli forces, the Palestinian police reported Thursday.

Brigadier General with the police forces Adnan Ad-Damiri said several arrests were made, all of them family members of the slain boy. The men and women apparently admitted their crimes under questioning, but justified their acts by explaining that Ra’ed was a “spy” for Israel.

And as with "honor killings," any prison time will no doubt be vastly reduced because their crime is quite justifiable by their community's standards.

Meanwhile, another women was found killed outside Hebron, very possibly another "honor killing." Together with the "honor killing" of a woman yesterday in Gaza, the 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 101, with 20 of them being women or children.

UPDATE: We also have another Gaza smuggler tunnel death, this one where a man accidentally strangled himself with the rope he was using to drag his booty - weapons? motorcycles? TNT? - into Rafah. I count tunnel deaths in my self-death count, so the 2009 tally is now at 102.