Israeli PM condemns Jewish wedding video mocking death of Palestinian baby in arson attack

JERUSALEM // Israeli authorities have opened an investigation after video footage emerged of Jewish zealots mocking the death of a Palestinian baby in an arson attack.

Aired on Israel’s Channel 10 television late Wednesday, the clip showed a wedding at which one dancing celebrant stabbed a picture of 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh while others waved assault rifles, knives and what appeared to be a petrol bomb.

Israeli media reported that the groom has previously been questioned over acts of “Jewish terrorism”, while the guests were friends or relatives of suspects arrested over the July firebombing.

The boy and his parents died when their home in the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank was set ablaze in July in an incident Israeli officials described as “Jewish terrorism”. A Star of David and the words “revenge” and “long live the Messiah” were spray-painted on a wall near the family’s small house in Duma.

The arson attack, and delays in solving the case despite the arrest of several suspects, contributed to the outbreak of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in years. At least 130 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October, and more than 20 Israelis were killed by Palestinians during the same period, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan.

On Thursday, Israeli security forces shot dead four Palestinians in the West Bank, three of whom they accused of attempted attacks on Israelis. Another Palestinian was killed during clashes with security forces in the Qalandiya refugee camp near East Jerusalem.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the wedding video “shocking” and said it showed “the true face of a group that constitutes a danger to Israeli society and to the security of Israel.”

“We are not prepared to accept people who deny the laws of the state and do not view themselves as subject to them,” he said.

Israeli police said they were investigating whether the actions at the wedding, which Channel 10 says took place in Jerusalem last week, constitute an incitement to violence.

In recent weeks, Israeli authorities have arrested a number of suspected Jewish extremists over the Duma firebombing, but no one has been charged with the crime.

Palestinians have often highlighted the lack of progress in the case as one of the causes of a wave of knife, gun and car-ramming attacks targeting Israelis that began on October 1. The firebombing drew renewed attention to Jewish extremism and accusations Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence.

On Tuesday, two tear gas canisters were thrown into a Palestinian home near Ramallah by suspected Jewish extremists, without hurting the family there at the time. Graffiti written in Hebrew near the home in Beitillu appeared to make reference to the detention of suspects in the Duma attack, saying “revenge” and “hello from the prisoners of Zion”.

Young Jewish men from wildcat settlement outposts in the West Bank and known as the “hilltop youth” have been blamed for violence and vandalism targeting Palestinians, Christian holy sites and even Israeli military property.

* Agencies