An Israeli court on Monday handed down three life sentences to a Jewish extremist convicted in a gruesome arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in 2015.
The Lod District Court found Amiram Ben-Uliel, a Jewish settler, guilty of murder for the killing of 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh by firebombing his home in the West Bank village of Duma.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The toddler's mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's 4-year-old brother Ahmad was the sole survivor of the attack.
The 2015 arson attack came amid a wave of vigilante attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by Jewish extremists. The deadly firebombing in Duma was harshly condemned by Israeli officials from across the political spectrum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to show "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice.
The court said Ben-Uliel's "actions were meticulously planned and stemmed from the radical ideology he held, and racism." It said the punishment was "close to the maximum penalty prescribed by the law."
Critics, however, noted that lesser non-deadly attacks, such as firebombings that damaged mosques and churches, had gone unpunished for years. And as the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestinians complained of a double-standard, where Palestinian suspects are quickly rounded up and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights while Jewish Israelis are protected by the country's criminal laws.
"What will the court's decision give me? What will it give to Ahmad?" the child's grandfather, Hussein Dawabsheh, told reporters outside the courtroom on Monday. "It won't return him."
The convicted man's wife, Orian Ben-Uliel, told reporters after the sentencing that "the judges didn't seek justice or truth. They decided to incriminate my husband at any price." She said the family would appeal to Israel's Supreme Court.
The Shin Bet security agency had said Ben-Uliel confessed to planning and carrying out the attack, and that two others were accessories. It said he claimed the arson was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli by Palestinians a month earlier.
Ben-Uliel belonged to a movement known as the "Hilltop Youth," a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized settlement outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops – land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state.
The Hilltop Youth have been known to attack Palestinians and even to clash with Israeli soldiers in response to perceived moves by the government to limit settlement activity.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
