Gunman may be buried next to admired killer

The Jewish Gunman who killed four Arabs last Friday may be buried next to the killer he tried to emulate.

The funeral of Eden Natan-Zada was postponed after his family were denied the right to bury him in a military cemetery or civilian cemeteries near his home.

The 19-year-old boarded a bus headed for Arab towns in the north of Israel and shot the driver and three passengers, apparently in protest at Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. After the shooting he was beaten to death by an angry mob.

Now an Israeli newspaper says Natan-Zada may be buried next to Baruch Goldstein, a US-born doctor who killed 29 Palestinians in a mosque in 1994.

Goldstein is buried alone in a garden that has become a shrine to the right-wing extremists Natan-Zada had joined after making contact with them on the internet.

Shaul Mofaz, the Defence Minister, has said Natan-Zada is not fit to lie next to the dead of Israel's wars.

The teenager's father has threatened to carry his son's body to the minister's home.