JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thirteen Jewish Israelis who celebrated the death of a Palestinian baby in a firebombing during a wedding, including the groom, have been indicted on charges of incitement.
Five of those charged Wednesday in Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court are minors aged 14 to 17.
A video from the wedding last December was broadcast originally on Israel’s Channel 10 in the days after the ceremony. It shows friends of the suspected assailants in the July 2015 attack on a home in the Palestinian village of Duma that killed three members of the Dawabshe family — a toddler and his parents — stabbing a photo of 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh and waving knives, rifles, pistols and Molotov cocktails.
Also, the revelers chant the words to a song that includes a verse from Judges 16:28, in which Samson says, “Let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” The crowd substitutes “Palestinians” for Philistines.
Wedding singer Sinai Tor, who sang the inciting song, was among those indicted. The groom is Yakir Ashbal, 21, who was described by Channel 10 as “well known in the radical right.” He has told the Israeli media that he did not see the the activity captured on camera at his wedding.
An investigation was launched into the incident, even before the broadcast of the video on Dec. 23, by the Nationalistically Motivated Crimes Unit of the West Bank police.
