Family of Palestinian boy who lost family to arson attack sues Israel for ‘criminal negligence’
Published May 8, 2017
Right-wing Jewish extremists were indicted in the July 2015 firebombing in the Palestinian village of Duma in the northern West Bank. Ahmed Dawabshe, then 4, was the only survivor of the attack that killed his brother, Ali, 18 months old; father, Saad; and mother, Riham.
The lawsuit filed on Monday in the Nazareth District Court charges Israel with “criminal negligence,” saying that the state’s settlement policies led to the attack, specifically because it failed to demolish illegal outposts including the one from which the alleged attackers came, the Times of Israel reported,
“The writing was on the wall and it was clear to everyone that the leniency toward the hilltop youth, outpost residents and lawbreakers would quickly spill over from property damage and non-fatal attacks to deadly attacks that would end the lives of the innocent Palestinian residents,” the lawsuit said according to the news website.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman late last month in an official response to Arab Joint List lawmaker Yousef Jabareen, who had asked why Ahmed Dawabshe had not received money from the state, said that the child is not eligible for compensation because he does not qualify as a terror victim, the law does not apply to Palestinians and that there was no request on file for such compensation.
Ahmed is being cared for by his grandparents.