TerrorismJewish extremists indicted in Israel for killing Palestinian family in arson attack

Right-wing extremists and arson have a long history in Israel // Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Israel has indicted two Jewish extremists for killing three members of a Palestinian family – 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, his mother Riham, and father Saad — and seriously injuring 4-year old Ahmad brother in an arson attack on a home in the Palestinian village of Duma in the occupied West Bank. The terrorist attack on the Palestinian family has ignited a series of attacks – called the ‘knife intifada”” — by Palestinians on Israeli citizens.

The attack also prompted the Israeli security services to begin to pay more attention to, and take action against, a small but growing group of violent Jewish religious fanatics, many of them living in illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories, who advocate not only the forcible expulsion of all Muslims and Christians from the Holy Land and the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the building of a Jewish Temple in its place (and the destruction of all other mosques and churches in the country) – they also call for ending Israeli democracy and dismantling the Israeli legal system, and for installing a king who would rule over a Jewish kingdom run according to Old Testament law.

Observers have noted the these Jewish fanatics are, in many ways, an ideological mirror image of the Islamic State – even if their violence and reach are not of the same scale as that of ISIS.

This violent group of fanatics is small, but it enjoys a measure of support in nationalist and religious extremist circles among the illegal settlers in the West Bank and in Israel proper.

As importantly, the violence against Palestinians has been given the open blessing of a few extremist rabbis who wield disproportionate influence among young religious fanatics.

The Telegraph reports that the long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a clandestine network of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, as the main suspect in the attack. A 17-year old minor was charged as an accessory. Two other youngsters were charged for other acts of violence against Palestinians. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.

Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security on Sunday said that that the suspects admitted to carrying out the Duma arson attack. The attackers said it they were retaliating for the killing of an Israeli settler by Palestinians a month earlier.

The Shin Bet said the four suspects charged on Sunday were part of a group of Jewish extremists who had carried out many attacks over the years in a religiously inspired campaign to undermine the Israeli government and military and sow fear among Palestinian and Israeli Arabs — both Muslims and Christians.