Israel court convicts seven for wedding video celebrating arson
An Israeli court convicted seven Jewish men on Wednesday of inciting violence and supporting a terrorist organization for their involvement in a 2015 wedding in which participants celebrated an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s court found the seven guilty of a raft of offenses for “glorifying with dance and song the murder of the Dawabsheh family” in a deadly West Bank firebombing by Jewish settler extremists in July 2015.
The attack on the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank killed 18-month-old Ali and his parents Riham and Saad and drew condemnation from across Israel’s political spectrum.
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Months after the attack, a video from a wedding that aired on Israeli television appeared to show guests at a wedding brandishing rifles and dancing to music with lyrics calling for revenge, while some stabbed photos of Ali Dawabsheh.
The court found the men guilty on charges that included incitement to violence or terror, support for a terrorist organization, incitement to racism, and illegal possession of a weapon, according to the Justice Ministry.
“I found that the inciting nature of the incident was apparent to all, clear, incontrovertible, and teaches among others two main messages folded into the actions: expression of support for the murder of an innocent family, and calling for revenge against Arabs,” the judge said.
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