NABLUS, June 20, 2018 (WAFA) – The Dawabsheh family, who lost three of its members in the 2015 arson attack by Israeli settlers, said it will seek justice in international courts if all legal means to convict the murderers in Israeli courts lead to nothing.
The family made this remark after an Israeli court ruled on Tuesday that the confessions by one of the main culprits in the arson murder of three of its members and another minor involved in the attack were not admissible since they were taken under alleged duress.
In July 3, 2015 in the village of Duma, near Nablus, Israeli Jewish settlers set fire to the home of the Dawabsheh family, which resulted in the loss of life of three of the family members; 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burned alive in the fire, while both his parents, Saad, his father, and Reeham, his mother, died from their injuries within weeks. The family was survived by its son, Ahmad, three at the time, who suffered different degrees of burns all over his body.
Nasr Dawabsheh, the family’s spokesperson and the brother of Saad, said that that the family will seek justice in international judiciary if the Israeli legal system fails in providing it.
"We are continuing to pursue the case before the Israeli courts, and in case all legal procedures fail, we will go to the international judiciary,” he said. “On the third day of the arson, we went to international justice through the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The response was that if all the methods fail, we can go to international courts.”
He said that the decision of the court was expected as a prelude to drop the charges against the minor culprits. He said the Palestinian Authority should use this court decision and build on it to force the Israeli courts to give equal treatment to detained Palestinian minors such as Ahmed Manasra who were tortured during interrogation to extract confessions from them.
The only surviving member in the Dawabsheh family is still recovering from his wounds and needs a surgery every three months.
K.T./M.K.
