World scout body: controversial Jerusalem troop not a member

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Lakin family shows, Richard Lakin, a dual Israeli-American citizen originally from Newton, Mass., who died Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, after he was critically wounded in a Palestinian attack on a public bus in Jerusalem two weeks ago had died of his wounds. The son of an American-Israeli man killed in a Palestinian attack last year has asked the global scout movement to expel its Palestinian branch after local members dedicated a recent training course to one of his father's killers. (Courtesy of the Lakin family via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

JERUSALEM – The world's main scouting organization says it has no connection to a Palestinian troop in Jerusalem that dedicated a recent training course to one of the killers of an Israeli-American man.

Stephen Peck, spokesman for the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said Sunday that the Jerusalem troop is not a member of his organization's Palestinian affiliate and "has no right to speak or publish on their behalf."

The east Jerusalem troop last month hosted a course dedicated to Baha Alyan — one of two Palestinian attackers who shot and stabbed passengers on a Jerusalem bus last October.

The son of an American-Israeli man killed in the attack had appealed to the world scouting movement to expel the Palestinian scouting association.