Israeli ‘Wedding of Hate’ Groom and 12 Guests Charged for Celebrating Murders of Palestinians

By Marcy Oster October 26, 2016

JERUSALEM — 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 the people charged on Wednesday at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s court are minors between the ages of 14 and 17.

The wedding took place in December 2015. A video from the wedding first broadcast on Israel’s Channel 10 in the days after the ceremony 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 Ali Dawabsheh, 18 months, and waving knives, rifles, pistols and Molotov cocktails. The revelers also 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 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.

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