Members of the Palestinian family whose home was torched by suspected Jewish terrorists, resulting in the death of a toddler and his father, will not be recognized as terror victims by Israel, Haaretz reported Monday.
The Israeli daily said that the surviving members of the Dawabsha family will not be eligible to receive compensation because by law the state is only obliged to compensate Israeli citizens affected by terrorism. This law does not apply to Palestinians living in the West Bank.
The July 31 attack in the village of Duma that killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha, and also wounded his mother and brother, led to angry Palestinian protests and an international outcry over Israel’s failure to curb violence by hardline Jewish settlers. Saad Dawabsha died early Saturday in hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba where he was being treated for third-degree burns for the past eight days.
MK Yousef Jabareen of the United Arab List said that Israeli and Palestinian victims should receive the same compensation rights. He asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to apply the law to all Palestinian victims of Jewish terror.
“Victims of nationalistic actions must be eligible for compensation, and it doesn’t matter if they’re Arab or Jewish,” Jabareen said, according to Haaretz.
Dan Yakir, chief legal counsel of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said that this issue is another example of “the intolerable gap between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, in every walk of life.”
Yakir pointed out that while Jewish settlers in the West Bank are automatically compensated for terror attacks, Palestinian victims of terror must apply to the exceptions committee.
Prime Minister Netanyahu had condemned the attack as “terrorism in every respect” and ordered a crackdown on Jewish extremism that has seen three people arrested, but no one has so far been accused of carrying out the firebombing.
Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon issued a six-month administrative arrest order on Sunday for two Jewish extremists suspected of carrying out and planning terror attacks against Palestinians and Christian targets. The detention warrants follow a government decision to crack down on Jewish terrorism following the arson attack in Duma.
Administrative detention, a measure rarely used against Jews and directed almost exclusively against Palestinians, allows authorities to arrest people without putting them on trial and without telling them of what they are suspected. It is generally used when there is no evidence or insufficient proof that an individual has violated the law, or as a tool to extract information.
Ya’alon’s orders apply to Meir Ettinger and Eviatar Slonim, who were arrested last week. A third terror suspect, Mordechai Meir, was also placed in administrative detention, last week.
Police, under strong domestic and international pressure, have admitted that they are having trouble finding those guilty of the attack in Duma and other attacks on Palestinians and their property, even issuing an appeal to the public last week asking for help in locating the perpetrators.
