Israel settler convicted of murdering Dawabsheh family

May 18, 2020

Lod District Court's triple-conviction of Ben-Uliel, 25, carries a potential life sentence

An Israeli Jewish settler has this morning been found guilty of the fatal arson attack that killed a Palestinian couple and their baby and left their four-year-old son scarred for life.

The arson attack that took place in July 2015 saw Israeli settler Amiram Ben-Uliel set fire to the Dawabsheh family home in the occupied West Bank village of Duma.

Eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burnt alive in the attack; while his parents died of their wounds. Ali’s older brother, Ahmed, who was four at the time, survived, with 80 per cent burns.

During an investigation into the blaze, evidence was found that Molotov cocktails thrown into a bedroom had ignited the fire.

Ben-Uliel confessed to the crime three times, however two were ruled inadmissible, the first because it was extracted by physical force and the second because it had been given soon after physical force was used. A third confession was eventually accepted.

Lod District Court’s triple-conviction of Ben-Uliel, 25, carries a potential life sentence, reported Al Jazeera.

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The court acquitted Ben Uliel of membership in a terror group.

In response to the verdict, Hussein Dawabsheh, Ahmed’s grandfather, said he “feels that the trial was for others, not for me. It won’t bring back my daughter; her husband and my grandson won’t return, but I don’t want another child to be in Ahmed’s place. We experienced a great trauma, and I won’t forget it in 100 years. I don’t want this to happen to another family.”

In a statement, the Shin Bet security service called the court’s decision “an important milestone in the battle against Jewish terror”. Ben-Uliel’s crimes, it said, are a “severe crossing of a red line.”