RAMALLAH, November 17, 2014 (WAFA) – Palestinian Chief Religious Justice, Mahmoud al-Habbash, slammed on Monday Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for the overnight reported hanging and murder of a Palestinian bus driver by Israeli settlers in West Jerusalem.

Yusuf Hassan Rammouni, 32, a resident of the Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tour who works as a bus driver with Egged Israeli transport company, was found hanged with a rope wrapped around his neck when coworkers arrived at the scene at a bus stop in West Jerusalem.

Al-Habbash said the recent murder is a crime which manifests the “criminal mindset” that has preoccupied the Israeli community, one that also proves large “animosity against everything that is Arab or Palestinian.”

He said this Israeli animosity is the result of continuing “racial incitement” led by Israeli officials who continue to provide “protection for settlers and terrorists.”

He called upon the “Israeli war criminals” to be brought to international justice, as well called upon all the relevant bodies to stand on the side of East Jerusalem Palestinian citizens.

The official warned that further Israeli assaults on East Jerusalem citizens and on the city’s al-Aqsa Mosque could drag into a popular uprising which could transform into a religious conflict, and which no one can control.

Meanwhile, PLO central committee member Ahmad Queri condemned the crime and considered it to be a continuity with an unceasing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, calling for an end to this aggression.

The escalation would trigger more tension to an already growing unrest which started around five months ago, and which has been on the rise.

M.N.