An Israeli court on Monday sentenced a Jewish settler to three life sentences for killing a Palestinian toddler and his parents in a firefighting attack on a occupied West Bank home.
Amiram Ben-Uliel, 25, was sentenced by a lower court in May following his conviction for the 2015 murder. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit hate crime as well as two counts of attempted murder and arson.
Ali Davbasheh, 18, was killed in the blaze. His mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their injuries. Ali’s four-year-old brother, Ahmed, survived the burn.
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The court said Ben-li Liel’s “actions were carefully planned, and originated from the radical ideology and racism he maintained.” It said the sentence was “close to the maximum penalty prescribed by law”.
This The Davbasheh family said no jail sentence could be atoned for the crime.
“What will the court’s decision give me? What will it give Ahmed?” The child’s grandfather, Hussein Dawabsheh, told reporters outside the courtroom on Monday. “It won’t give him anything back.”
‘Change’
The 2015 firefight came amid a wave of vigilante attacks on West Bank Pentecost by Jewish settlers.
Ben-Uliel Demanded revenge for the killing of an Israeli a month earlier. He chose the Davbasheh family and another home in the village of Duma near Nablus based on their population perceptions and, before giving them firefighters, painted spray-painted “Revenge” and “Long Live King Messiah” on their walls.
Ben-Uliel The charge, linked to a “terrorist” organization, was acquitted.
He first threw a Molotov cocktail from the window of the house, whose occupants were not at home.
Then he moved on Davbasheh Leaving the house, he hurled another petrol bomb at the bedroom window before fleeing from where the couple and their two children had slept.
‘Hilltop Youth’
The killings drew attention to Jewish attacks on Palestinians and allegations that Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence. Critics say fewer attacks on mosques or churches have long been blamed.
As the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestinians complained of a double standard, where Palestinian suspects are quickly surrounded and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights, while Jews Israelis are protected by the country’s criminal law.
Ben-Uliel was involved in a movement called “Hilltop Youth”, a leaderless group of young Jewish settlers who set up unauthorized outposts on the West Bank hills, usually clusters of trailers – Palestinians wanted for their hopeful state.
Hilltop Youth is also known for attacking Palestine and clashing in response to alleged government measures to limit reconciliation activity with Israeli troops.
The second weakest accused in the case entered a plea deal last year, in which the murder charge against him was reduced to conspiracy charges. The youth confessed to knocking Duma out before the attack with Ben-Uliel, but was said not to have participated.
Ben-Yuliel said Israeli investigators forced him to make a false confession to the attack.
“The judges were not seeking justice or the truth. They decided to convict my husband at any cost,” Orion Ben-Yuliel, the convicted man’s wife, told reporters outside the courtroom after the sentencing, and the family would appeal to the country’s Supreme Court. .
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