Arab MKs blast Jewish terrorist attacker of Duma at sentencing hearing
'You burned a family... have you no shame?'
By YONAH JEREMY BOBJoint List faction chairman Ahmad Tibi(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Five Joint List MKs led by Ahmad Tibi blasted the Jewish terrorist who perpetrated the 2015 arson murders of three Palestinians in Duma during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday at the Lod District Court.Calling out "you burned a family...have you no shame?," the MKs exchanged jibes with supporters of Amiram Ben-Uliel, including Orian Ben-Uliel, his wife, who responded, “they manufactured a case” against her husband since no one caught the real murderers. On May 18, the Lod District Court convicted Ben-Uliel of the terrorist arson murders on the Palestinian Dawabshe family home, which killed 18-month-old Ali and his parents, Sa’ad and Riham, and destabilized Israeli-Arab relations throughout the region.The prosecution demanded multiple life-in-prison sentences.The defense asked for leniency, noting that there was one act, not three separate acts, and noting that Ben-Uliel was given enhanced interrogation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).Moreover, the defense cross-examined family members of the Dawabshes to try to show potential connections to Hamas. Ultimately, the court said this was not relevant to sentencing Ben-Uliel.But given a triple murder conviction, the defense is placing most of its faith in an eventual appeal once the sentence is handed down.In May, judges Ruth Lorch, Tsvi Dotan and Dvora Atar also convicted Ben-Uliel of two separate counts of attempted murder and two separate counts of arson, but acquitted Ben-Uliel of membership in a terrorist group.Despite that acquittal, the court also declared that Ben-Uliel had murdered the Palestinians for ideological reasons – something that could lead to a harsher sentence or to preventing lenient treatment at some later date.Asher Ohayon, the lead lawyer for Ben-Uliel, vowed in May to appeal to the Supreme Court, saying the court had wrongfully accepted confessions given post-torture.
The court said that even though it disqualified confessions Ben-Uliel gave when the Shin Bet used enhanced interrogation on him, his confessions 36 hours later were given freely and compellingly.Furthermore, the court said it was convinced by Ben-Uliel’s voluntary physical reconstruction of the crime at the scene of the murders.In addition, the court cited Ben-Uliel’s refusal to testify in his own defense.The court wrote that, “The defendant described the scene of the crime in extreme detail in his confessions… which was later clarified to be meticulously accurate… the defendant carried out a reconstruction with great accuracy and which was close to identical to his confessions – something that rebuts the claims” that he was guessing or tipped off in the moment by the Shin Bet investigators.Ohayon responded to a question from The Jerusalem Post about the fact that the Supreme Court has been very accepting of enhanced interrogation confessions during the last three years, saying there was no parallel.He also said Ben-Uliel had been “tortured far worse than any Palestinian.”The Dawabshe family responded to the decision saying it is important for justice to be done so “no one else’s lives will be ruined” and destroyed like their three murdered relatives.Supporters for Ben-Uliel yelled at the court, “How can you convict an innocent person?,” and had to be silenced by security guards.The sentencing arguments hearing was set for June 9, and it is expected that the actual sentencing will occur later in the summer or the early fall.For months after the murder, the Shin Bet performed a massive manhunt and investigation, but turned up empty-handed.Former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen has told the Post that he has fundamentally altered the entire approach toward Jewish terrorism against Palestinians, taking a much harder stance and investing far more resources.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon made frequent statements about the severity of the incident, and assured regional partners in the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt and globally of their commitment to bringing the perpetrators to justice.When the Shin Bet finally apprehended Ben-Uliel, then 21, as well as a minor who was accused of conspiring with him, the situation was viewed as so desperate that they used torture/enhanced interrogation to get the defendants to confess.This ushered in a whole new side and saga to the case, because suddenly, enhanced interrogation, administrative detention and other extreme measures were being used not only against Palestinians, as in the past, but also against Jews.Yamina MK Bezalel Smotrich and activist Itamar Ben-Gvir have accused the Shin Bet and the prosecution of massive overreaction and injustice in the treatment of Ben-Uliel and the minor.
