Jewish settler guilty of murdering Palestinian family in arson attack

AN Israeli district court yesterday convicted a Jewish extremist of murder in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents, a case that sent shock waves through the international community.

In July 2015, Riham and Saad Dawabsheh and their 18-month baby were burned alive when settlers set fire to their home in the village of Duma in Nablus. Another child sustained severe burns in the attack.

At the time, the Israeli government considered the incident a “terrorist” attack; however, the Palestinian leadership and human rights organizations accused Israel of not being serious in pursuing the assailants.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Nasr Dawabsheh told Anadolu Agency (AA), that the Israeli court’s conviction of the settler was “not enough.” “The crime was not committed by one person,” he said. “We demand all perpetrators be brought to justice and receive the highest punishment.”

He stressed that the family intends to continue to follow the case at Israeli and international courts. “We do not trust the Israeli judiciary, but we are forced to exhaust all legal steps in Israeli courts and then move to international tribunals to hold the perpetrators accountable,” he added.

The Shin Bet internal security service had said Ben-Uliel confessed to planning and carrying out the attack, and that two others were accessories. It said he claimed the arson was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli by Palestinians a month earlier.

Ben-Uliel’s lawyers said they were not surprised by the verdict and claimed their client’s confession was made under severe torture.

Ben-Uliel belonged to a movement known as the “hilltop youth,” a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops – land occupied by Israel.

The verdict came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s new government should push ahead with annexing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move likely to further inflame tensions in the territory.

At the time of the arson killing, Israel was dealing with a wave of vigilante-style attacks by suspected Jewish extremists. But the deadly firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma touched a particularly sensitive nerve. Critics noted that lesser non-deadly attacks, such as firebombings that damaged mosques and churches, had gone unpunished for years. And as the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestinians complained of a doublestandard, where suspected Palestinians are quickly rounded up and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights, while Jewish Israelis are protected by the country’s criminal laws.