Hate Wedding: Four convicted in post-Duma arson incitement case

Four celebrants from the infamous “hate wedding” following the 2015 Duma arson deaths of three Palestinian family members were convicted for incitement to violence, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Thursday.

The conviction of the four, who were minors at the time of the incident, came in response to two state appeals to the Jerusalem Juvenile Court’s verdict acquitting them. A fifth respondent, the youngest, at the time almost age 14, was acquitted again because it wasn’t proven beyond reasonable doubt that he understood the action’s relation to the Duma revenge attack.

What was the Hate Wedding?

The attack occurred on the night of July 30, when Jewish terrorist Amiram Ben-Uliel hurled a Molotov cocktail at the home of the Dawabshe family in the West Bank village of Duma. The arson killed 18-month-old Ali at the scene, while his parents, Sa’ad and Riham, died of their burns in the hospital.

Another son, five-year-old Ahmed, was hospitalized with severe burns. A nearby house was spray-painted with a star of David and the word “vengeance” – the attack was reportedly in response to the Palestinian terrorist attack near Duma that killed Malachi Rosenfeld. Ben-Uliel was sentenced to three life sentences in 2020, and a teen accomplice to three and a half years in prison.

Video from the wedding, which took place five months after the attack, showed participants celebrating the Duma arson. Photos of the baby and parents attached to signs were brought to the dance floor, and as two songs pertaining to revenge were performed by the wedding singer, participants in the affair danced with the signs, carrying M4 and M16 rifles, pistols, mock guns, knives and glass bottles made up to resemble Molotov cocktails. Some of the celebrants, including the five respondents, stabbed and set fire to the pictures.

Footage of the wedding left Israeli and Palestinian societies in an outrage, and the event was dubbed the “hate wedding.” Eight adults were tried in a separate case from the five minors. The singer was acquitted, but the seven others, including the groom, were convicted.

The court determined on Thursday that the four convicted participants engaged in actions that demonstrated clear and actionable incitement. There was a real possibility that a member of the audience could have acted based on the macabre celebration.

Right-wing legal organization Honenu criticized the court for overturning the ruling of the lower court based on what it said were “predatory” law enforcement operations against minors. They said the ruling illustrated the need for reform of the judicial system.

“The court has regressed us as a society to a situation where children who committed a stupid prank at a private wedding stand trial and are convicted at the end of a lengthy legal process, while thousands who distribute candy after terrorist attacks and celebrate in mosques when Jews are murdered – roam freely among us,” said Honenu.

The case was returned to the Jerusalem Juvenile Court for sentencing.

Jerusalem Post Staff and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.