Hussein Dawabsheh, a relative of three Palestinians slain in a firebomb attack in their home in a occupied West Bank village in 2015 said he expects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put an end to a “campaign of incitement” by racist far-right coalition members — and by the PM’s son, in support of the settler terrorist convicted of the killings.
Amiram Ben Uliel is serving three life sentences plus 20 years for the arson attack in Duma eight years ago, in which Riham and Saad Dawabsheh were killed along with their 18-month-old son, Ali Saad. Only the couple’s five-year-old son, Ahmed, survived the terror attack, with extensive burns.
Hussein Dawabsha, grandfather of a Palestinian toddler who was burned to death with his parents at their family home, stands with Knesset member Ofer Cassif, during a visit to the Knesset, last week (Photo: Zo Haderech)
Ben Uliel was found guilty in 2020 of three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, arson, and conspiring to commit a racially motivated crime, as part of a terrorist act. According to the court, in September 2015, Ben Uliel and his teenage accomplice set out to attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank village of Duma.
The two agreed to meet on the night of the attack. When the younger accomplice failed to show up on time to the rendezvous point, Ben-Uliel decided to carry out the attack on his own. Under cover of darkness, Ben Uliel lobbed homemade explosives into the home of the Dawabsheh family, killing the parents and the toddler. In 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the charges against Ben Uliel’s accomplice, who has not been named due to the fact that he was a minor at the time of the firebomb attack.
Hussein Dawabsheh, the father of Riham and the grandfather of the surviving child Ahmed, told MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) during a visit held last week at the Knesset that “anyone who supports the murderer Amiram Ben Uliel is a partner to the crime and is encouraging terror against Palestinians.” He added that “members of Knesset and the people on the right who support him morally, financially, or otherwise and who want his punishment and prison conditions to be eased — are themselves Amiram Ben Uliel.” “We must stop this to prevent the next murder,” Dawabsheh said.
Last week, amid increasingly advocacy by far-right coalition figures and settlers on Ben Uliel’s behalf, a fundraiser for his release brought in over NIS 1,2 million ($315,000) from a pool of donors that included prominent figures in the West Bank settler movement. Far-right Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, who spoke at the Tuesday event titled “Amiram also deserves justice,” defended the Jewish terrorist and called him a “holy righteous man”. The son of Netanyahu, Yair, also appeared to support Ben Ulilel on Friday, sharing a social media post that defended the convicted terrorist while attending his father’s speech at United Nations headquarters in New York.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=24796
