Israel charges two Jewish extremist youths in Duma killings
Allison Deger
Mondoweiss
Israel charged two suspects today for an arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma that killed three Palestinians last summer, ending a five-month investigation into the most high-profile act of settler violence against Palestinians.
Police named the lead suspect as 21-year old Amiram Ben Uliel, from Jerusalem. In a statement released today Israel’s Ministry of Justice said Ben Uliel is charged on multiple counts for “three acts of murder as well as attempted murder, arson, and criminal conspiracy with racist motives.” Prosecutors did not name his alleged accomplice, a 17-year-old settler. They indicted five others, who are accused of obstruction and carrying out a series of earlier attacks on Palestinians and their property.
On July 31, 2015, assailants set fire to the home of the Dawabshe family in Duma outside of Nablus, burning alive 18-month old Ali Dawabshe. In the weeks that followed the toddler’s parents—Sa’ad Dawabshe, 32, and Riham Dawabshe, 27—died from injuries sustained during the firebombing. The family is survived by four-year old Ahmad Dawabshe, who is still recovering from burns in an Israeli hospital.
Ben Uliel is the son of a rabbi and a member of a “hilltop youth” group, a loose organization of radical settlers who carry out acts of violence against Palestinians in the occupied territory. The other suspect, who is a minor and a West Bank settler, was listed as an accomplice to the murder and also a member of the same extremist group. Police said the accomplice provided logistical support to Ben Uliel but did not participate in the actual arson attack, failing to show up at the meeting point the night of the attack.
The accomplice’s name is withheld as he is a minor and a gag order is placed over revealing his identity.
Contradicting police findings, witnesses from Duma maintained after the attack they saw two suspects fleeing the scene, not one.
Source: mondoweiss.net