JERUSALEM -- The Israeli government has postponed a meeting scheduled for Friday to discuss the resumption of peace negotiations with the Palestinians after what Israelis are calling "Israel's first Internet murder."
The body of 16-year-old Israeli Ofir Rachum was found near the Palestinian town of Ramallah the previous day. The Israeli police believe he was shot by members of the Palestinian Tanzim group, which they suspect of setting up a trap through a chat room.
Rachum, from the Mediterranean port city of Ashkelon, reportedly had struck up an online friendship several weeks ago with a girl who told him she was a 20-something American tourist staying in Jerusalem, but who now is suspected to be from Ramallah. They moved from the chat rooms to direct e-mail contact, his friends told reporters Thursday, and then to talking regularly on the telephone.
After meeting once in Jerusalem, Rahum arranged to see her there again on Wednesday. Police investigators suspect that, whatever her initial intentions had been, the girl was persuaded by the Tanzim to turn him over to them. When he arrived at their appointed meeting place, instead of taking him where she was staying, it appears that she drove him out of the city towards the Palestinian town.
Somewhere on the way, according to Palestinian eye-witnesses interviewed by a French news agency, she met up with a group from the Tanzim, who shot Rahum 15 times and dumped the car, with his body in the trunk, at the outskirts of Ramallah.
His parents reported him missing a day later. According to one account, Rachum's cellular phone was traced by Israelis to the area, where an extensive search was carried out, the details of which have not been released. Another account says the Palestinian police found his body.
"This is what happens when you play around too much on the Internet," Rachum's mother wrote in a statement after she was told of her son's murder. "The Internet attracted the boy and that's what killed him. It is all because of the Internet."
Friends said the high school student had bragged about his Internet relationship with an "older woman."
"He told us she was from Jerusalem, apparently an English-speaking tourist. They spoke on-line and on the phone," said Shlomi Abargil, one of the friends.
"She simply led him astray," he said, adding that the two first met face-to-face a month ago in Jerusalem. "She was 20-plus and he was only 16 and a half. I think that is what attracted him."
"The boy was very involved in a private Israeli portal called Rotter," says Israel Radio's Internet correspondent Eli Hacohen. "He was heavily involved in the chat rooms and news groups that dealt with computers."
Rotter, a Hebrew portal run by a father and son, put up a picture of Rachum on the Internet and Computers Forum page "in remembrance of Ofir Rachum, who was a member of the forums and the chat rooms on the site."
Rachum also ran his own website. Last updated on the day before he died, it says in Hebrew, "Welcome to Ofir Rachum's site and thanks for surfing here. Don't forget one important thing: the site is updated daily. Tell your friends. I hope you have fun and come back soon. Bye."
The Palestinian Authority has condemned Rachum's murder, and have apparently arrested several suspects. They are calling the motive "criminal." The Israeli police and security forces are also investigating.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said it was a "vile killing by murderers lacking a human image," adding that such murder made peace negotiations even more difficult.
Ofir Rahum was buried Friday morning in his hometown.
(Reuters contributed to this report.)
