The Justice Ministry released details of the indictments handed down in the Duma arson case. YWN-ISRAEL reported on Sunday 22 Teves that Jerusalem resident Amiram Ben-Uliel was indicted in the case along with a minor, whose details may not be publicized.

The Tel Aviv District Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday morning, in the Lod District Court, submitted an indictment against Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, who is charged with murdering three members of the Darawshe family in Duma, with attempting to murder an additional member of the family, and with committing other offenses including attempted murder and arson for racist motives. An additional defendant, a 17-year-old minor, is charged with criminal conspiracy and other offenses for racist motives, including conspiracy regarding the aforesaid attack. The arson at Dormition Abbey is also attributable to him. The accused are also charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.

The submission of the indictment was approved by the Attorney General and the State Attorney. According to the indictment, which was filed by attorneys Rachel Avisar and Yael Atzmon, during 2009-2013, Jewish activists carried out various “Price Tag” actions which were characterized by arson and spray-painting graffiti against Muslims and Christians simply because of the religious or national affiliation. Their overall goal was to deter decision-makers and dissuade them from evacuating communities and outposts in Yehuda and Shomron due to concern over additional actions and future disturbances that would be carried out as a result. In 2013, Price Tag activists were declared “an illegal organization.”

In the indictment, it is claimed that in the past two years, a group of extremists began to operate that sought to advance a more violent ideological agenda the goal of which was to undermine the stability of the State of Israel by violent terrorist acts including harm to life and bloodshed. To this end, the accused are charged with belonging to a terrorist organization that set for itself the goal of bringing about a security conflagration against a nationalist and inter-religious background. The violent acts carried out by the accused in the framework of this terrorist organization were designed to deliver a message of deterrence and to sow fear among the non-Jewish population.

In the indictment, it says that following the June 2015 murder of Malachi Rosenfeld by Palestinian terrorists, Amiram Ben-Uliel and the accused minor conspired to carry out a revenge attack against Arabs and kill people. In this context, the two discussed a location for the attack and agreed to carry it out in Duma, they also agreed to carry out another attack – if possible – in nearby Majdal, with the intention of killing people in their homes.

To this end, Ben-Uliel prepared a bag with two bottles full of a flammable liquid, rags, a lighter, a box of matches, gloves and a can of black spray-paint. On the night of 30 July, Ben-Uliel donned dark clothing and set out from his home with the bag in order to meet the accused minor in a cave at the outpost known as “Yishuv Da’at.” After failing to meet the minor, Ben-Uliel decided to carry out the attack on his own. Upon reaching the outskirts of Duma, he tied his shirt around his head to hide his face and put the gloves on his hands. In order to increase the damage and ensure that the home he would set fire to was not abandoned, Ben-Uliel looked for a home with indications that it was inhabited. He first spray-painted the words “Revenge” and “Long live the King Messiah” on the walls of a two-story home belonging to Mamun Darawshe and then threw a firebomb through one of its windows with the intention of killing its inhabitants. The home, which was empty, went up in flames.

Immediately afterwards, Ben-Uliel turned toward the home of Saad and Raham Darawshe with the second firebomb in his hand. After trying to open two windows without success, he opened a window to the bedroom in which the family members were then sleeping, lit the firebomb, threw it in and fled on foot. The fire spread and caught four family members. Ali Darawshe, a one-and-a-half year-old baby, his two parents, Said and Riham Darawshe, were killed; four-year-old Ahmed is still hospitalized five months later having been severely burned.

Ben-Uliel is charged with three acts of murder as well as attempted murder, arson, and criminal conspiracy with racist motives. The minor is charged with criminal conspiracy to commit murder for racist motives, arson, willfully causing damage for racist motives and additional offenses.

The investigation was led by the ISA and the Israel Police.

Please note: The court has issued a gag order on all details regarding the identity of the minor as well as all details regarding the means and methods used by the ISA in investigating the affair.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)