Prominent rabbi urges release of Palestinian family’s killer, calls detention ‘evil’

Tzvi Kostiner, head of pre-military academy, says convicted murderer Amiram Ben Uliel ‘didn’t do anything, but even if say he did — come on, accept him’

Rabbi Tzvi Kostiner, head of Mitzpe Ramon’s Midbara K’Eden Yeshiva, speaks during a demonstration on August 11, 2023. (Screenshot: Twitter/X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Rabbi Tzvi Kostiner, head of Mitzpe Ramon’s Midbara K’Eden Yeshiva, speaks during a demonstration on August 11, 2023. (Screenshot: Twitter/X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The head of a pre-army religious academy in southern Israel called Thursday for the release of a right-wing extremist convicted of killing three members of a Palestinian family in an arson attack in 2015.

Amiram Ben Uliel was sentenced to three life sentences plus 20 years for the deadly firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma in which Riham and Saad Dawabsha were killed along with their 18-month-old son, Ali Saad. Only the couple’s eldest son, Ahmed, survived the terror attack, with terrible burns; he was 5 years old at the time.

Ben Uliel was found guilty in 2020 of three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, arson and conspiring to commit a racially motivated crime, as part of a “terrorist act”.

There have been demonstrations calling for Ben Uliel’s release, largely focusing on the fact that his confession was obtained using what the Shin Bet security agency calls “special measures” — decried as torture by Ben Uliel and by rights groups.

During one of these rallies, Rabbi Tzvi Kostiner was filmed Thursday saying that Ben Uliel’s treatment by the courts was “one of the greatest injustices” by the State of Israel.

Decrying the fact that Ben Uliel has been in continued solitary confinement, Kostiner said that Ben Uliel should ideally be released and completely exonerated, demanding that he at least be transferred to a special jail ward for religious inmates, where he would receive better conditions.

Kostiner, who heads Mitzpe Ramon’s Midbara K’Eden Yeshiva, argued that Ben Uliel “didn’t do anything, but even if he did — come on, accept him.”

“I call on everybody, let’s end this evil and do the biggest justice and release him,” he said, adding that he was hoping this would happen as soon as possible.

Amiram Ben Uliel, convicted of the Duma arson murder in July 2015, in which three members of the Dawabsha family were killed, attends a hearing on his appeal, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, on March 7, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The remarks were slammed Saturday by Labor party chair Merav Michaeli, who tweeted: “This is what supporters of Jewish terror look like.”

Michaeli called on Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to cut off the partnership between the IDF and Kostiner’s academy as long as he heads it.

“An inciteful person full of poison who already called for students to refuse to serve with women in the IDF. [He] acts against the LGBTQ community and pride parades in the city. A person whose institution is seriously funded by the State of Israel,” she wrote.

Saad and Riham Dawabsha, with baby Ali. All three died when the Dawabsha home in the West Bank village of Duma was firebombed, by suspected Jewish extremists, on July 31, 2015 (Channel 2 screenshot)

The firebombing of the Dawabsha family, considered one of the most brutal acts of Jewish terror in recent years, led to official promises to crack down on Jewish extremism in the West Bank, though critics say many Jewish terrorists still act with impunity, especially under the current hard-right government.

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