Wife of Dawabsha murder suspect calls victims’ family ‘terrorists’

The wife of a Jewish suspect accused of a terror attack that left three members of a Palestinian family dead called the relatives of his victims “terrorists” during a heated exchange outside a courthouse Wednesday.

The incident occurred outside the Lod District Court during a preliminary hearing for Amiram Ben-Uliel and another suspect accused of torching the Dawabsha family home in July, killing a baby and his parents.

The name of the second suspect, a minor, is under gag order.

After the closed door hearing, the families and supporters from both sides of the case became embroiled in a angry confrontation outside the court.

Members of the Dawabsha family shouted “Allahu akbar” and “Are you not ashamed?” at family of the suspects.

Oriane Ben-Uliel, wife of Amiram, retorted: “You are just showing that you are the terrorists here.”

Ben-Uliel, 21, of Jerusalem, along with the unnamed minor, 16, were indicted in early January in the July 31, 2015, firebomb attack on the home of the Dawabsha family in the West Bank village of Duma, which led to the immediate death of 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha and the deaths weeks later of parents Riham and Saad.

Five-year-old Ahmed Dawabsha, Ali’s brother, remains hospitalized in Israel and faces a long rehabilitation. Ben-Uliel was indicted for murder; the minor, who is not alleged to have directly participated in the firebombing, was charged as an accomplice.

The indictments against the suspects constituted a key breakthrough in the case, which shocked Israelis and led to unprecedented measures against Jewish terror suspects, including a cabinet vote to extend to Israeli citizens counterterrorism practices such as detention without trial.

At the courthouse, dozens of supporters of the Dawabsha family held up signs reading “Riham, Saad, Ali — the Dawabsha blood is calling from the ground.”

Hussein, Riham’s father, told the Hebrew-language Maariv website after the hearing that Ben-Uliel laughed throughout the session.

“This is a person who murdered my son and they let him laugh in my face,” he said. “It is hard for a person to see the murderers of his family, but I intend to come to each hearing.”

The public was banned from the hearing to protect the identity of the minor and because the Shin Bet security service has kept some details of the investigation confidential.

But Knesset member Bassal Ghattas of the Joint (Arab) List, who came to the court, said the hearing should be public.

“This should be citizenship 101. Everybody should be aware of what is going on inside. This is a trial that is very important to the public, of someone who did this totally criminal act, a crime of neo-Nazism.”

Nassar Dawabsha, brother of Saad, said outside the court he doubted justice would be served, the Hebrew-language Walla website reported.

“I came today because we need to monitor the court,” he said. “It is very hard for me to see my brother’s murderers, and I am full of anger. We demand justice, but don’t believe there will be justice. If there was justice — Israel could have prevented this from happening.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.