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Photo courtesy of Channel 10
Dancing with Molotov cocktails at the wedding
Photo courtesy of Channel 10

Police investigating wedding video on suspicion of incitement

Video shows right-wing youth dancing with weapons, one of them repeatedly stabbing a picture of infant Ali Dawabsheh, who was killed in the Duma arson attack.

The Israel Police and the Shin Bet said on Thursday that it had already launched an investigation into a video first aired on Channel 10 filmed at a right-wing couple's wedding in which guests are seen stabbing a photo of infant Ali Dawabsheh, who died in an arson attack on his home in Duma, believed to have been committed by radical right-wing Jews.

 

 

The Judea and Samaria Police said that an investigation against 30 of the guests was launched several days ago "into the many serious offenses displayed in the wedding video," including incitement, violation of administrative restraining orders, violation of house arrest, and unlawful possession of weapons. 

 

A source involved in the investigation said arrests are expected in the coming days.

 

The initial video of the wedding held in Jerusalem several weeks ago shows guests dancing with guns, knives, and Molotov cocktails to a song quoting Psalms 104:21, "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God," and Judges 16:28, "O God, that I may be this once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes."

 

Courtesy of Channel 10    (באדיבות: ערוץ 10)

Courtesy of Channel 10

סגורסגור

שליחה לחבר

 הקלידו את הקוד המוצג
תמונה חדשה

שלח
הסרטון נשלח לחברך

סגורסגור

הטמעת הסרטון באתר שלך

 קוד להטמעה:

 

Ynet has obtained another, longer video from the wedding, which shows the guests, including groom Yakir Ashbal, dancing while passing rifles from one to the other.

 

The investigation will focus on the origin of the weapons in an effort to ascertain who the arms belong to. IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has instructed the military's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) to check, in cooperation with the Israel Police, whether the weapons seen in the video came from the IDF, and whether soldiers were involved.

 

Video of the 'wedding of hate'

Video of the 'wedding of hate'

סגורסגור

שליחה לחבר

 הקלידו את הקוד המוצג
תמונה חדשה

שלח
הסרטון נשלח לחברך

סגורסגור

הטמעת הסרטון באתר שלך

 קוד להטמעה:

 
In a close-up new photo of what was dubbed in the Israeli media as "The Wedding of Hatred," one of the guests is seen sticking a knife in a photo of Ali Dawabsheh.

 

The guest also has a Molotov cocktail in his hand and beside him people are seen celebrating while waving weapons in the air.

 

Stabbing a picture of  Ali Dawabsheh.
Stabbing a picture of Ali Dawabsheh.

 

In material not yet released to the public in the Shin Bet's possession, the guests are seen setting fire to the Molotov cocktail and burning the photo of Ali Dawabsheh. One of the photos shows a boy of about 12 holding two guns.

 

Police say they have collected a lot of investigative material on the behavior shown in the video, only a fraction of which was aired. The State Attorney approved the opening of a police investigation at the Judea and Samaria Police's Nationalistically-Motivated Crimes Unit, which will be investigating suspicions of incitement, among others.

 

Some of the guests are under administrative orders barring them from entering Jerusalem, which did not stop them from attending the wedding in the capital; some are barred from meeting each other; some are under house arrest; and one of the suspects was supposed to be in Safed.

 

The groom is known to security services and has been arrested and questioned by the Shin Bet in the past about his involvement in so-called "price tag" activities.

 

Photo of Ali Dawabsheh waved by guest also holding a Molotov cocktail.
Photo of Ali Dawabsheh waved by guest also holding a Molotov cocktail.

 

The owner of the venue where the wedding was held told Ynet that police knew of the wedding and deployed undercover officers to the event.

 

"There are dozens of weddings like that every month," he said. "When the adults leave, the young guys always stay and start with these songs and dancing. These are teenagers. And police knew exactly what was going on here. To begin with, they flooded the venue with undercover cops and filmed and documented everything. In some of the cases, some of the teenagers were arrested outside the venue. My security guards asked the cops, who were in civilian clothes, who were they, and then they showed them their police ID."

 

A guest at the wedding said he was shocked when he saw the teens' actions. "I've been coming to these weddings for several years now but this was a shocking spectacle. The songs are the same songs, but the hatred and the weapons, along with the photos of Dawabsheh, were crossing a red line. These teens are really hate-filled."

 

The guest expressed concern for the image of the religious-Zionist sector. "I really hope this story won't set us 20 years back."

 

Baby Ali Dawabsheh
Baby Ali Dawabsheh

 

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the lawyer representing one of the detainees in the Duma case, can also be seen in photos from the wedding.

 

Ben-Gvir told Ynet on Thursday morning: "I was at the wedding. No one realized these were photos of a member of the Dawabsheh family. You have to understand, the photos were the size of an A4 page. The minute I realized (what was happening) - I was ashamed. I think this is foolish.

 

"But I also see what's going on: The Shin Bet, aided by people from the Yesha Council, are simply diverting the discussion from the torturing (allegedly done to the Jewish suspects) to the video, talking about it as if that was the most important thing.

 

"Whoever waved the photo of the baby and stabbed it several times is an idiot, he's stupid. No doubt. But this won't sweep the torture under the rug."

 

Other prominent right-wing figures seen in the footage and photos are Lehava leader Benzi Gopstein, and Daniel Pinner, an extremist settler from Tapuach who was convicted in the past of gun possession, battery and the assault of a Palestinian.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the Shin Bet's methods as lawful and said the wedding video was proof of the need to spare no effort in curbing violent Jewish zealots.

 

"The shocking pictures that were broadcast ... show the true face of a group that constitutes a danger to Israeli society and to the security of Israel," Netanyahu said in a statement.

 

"We are not prepared to accept people who deny the laws of the state and do not view themselves as subject to them. The pictures underscore how important a strong Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) is to the security of us all."

 

Netanyahu's condemnation was echoed within his coalition government, though one allied far-right lawmaker demurred.

 

Bezalel Smotrich, whose Bayit Yehudi party is a powerful partner of Netanyahu's conservative Likud, voiced suspicion about the leak of the wedding video, which Channel 10 said had originally been seized by state investigators.

 

"My concern is that someone in the security establishment released this clip, at this time, in order to try to grant legitimacy to those aberrant interrogation methods, which apparently include unacceptable use of violence, against people from this group," Smotrich told Israel's Army Radio.

 

Members of the Dawabsheh family were outraged and shocked by the video, and said they are considering taking legal action against those seen in the video.

 

"I demand the defense establishment to catch the people in the video and put them in jail. To me, these people are not even human," said Hussein Dawabsheh, the grandfather of Ali Dawabsheh, who was killed in the attack, and his brother Ahmad, who was seriously wounded.

 

"What bothers me the most is the hatred towards Ali, who hasn't done anything to them. Isn't it enough, what was done to him?"

 

Ahmad Dawabsheh was transferred on Thursday morning from the Pediatrics Department to the Rehabilitation Department at the Sheba Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.

 

"He hasn't seen the new department yet because he slept all morning after having cried all night," the grandfather said.

 

Reuters contributed to this report.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.24.15, 12:05
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