Palestinian who claimed his house was torched fabricated story

A Palestinian who claimed to be victim of a hate crime when he reported that Jewish settlers torched his West Bank home earlier this month was found to have fabricated the story, police say.

Military prosecutors opened an investigation into the false report, and the man faces charges of obstruction of justice and making false claims to authorities and violating public order.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian resident of the Bethlehem area town of al-Khader told Israeli authorities that Jewish settlers had graffitied “Death to Arabs” on a wall near the family home before setting fire to their property.

He claimed a group of five Jewish youths also shouted profanities and threw rocks at him.

His father corroborated the account.

Following the complaint, the Judea and Samaria District Police, Israel’s police presence in the West Bank, opened an investigation into the incident.

However, police spokesperson Luba Samri says investigators found no flammable material or forensic evidence at the scene to corroborate the man’s claims.

In a statement, Samri says “substantial” discrepancies turned up between the man’s account and testimonies of eyewitnesses.

— Tamar Pileggi