Duma Murders Expose Israel's "Mindless Violence"

Duma is a Palestinian town 25 kilometers southeast of Nablus in Northern Palestine.

It is an old town, surrounded by olive trees (above). Pottery sherds from the Hellenistic and Roman eras have been found. Southwest of the village is a spring called Ayn Duma, where water has been collected in ancient small pools, some hollowed out of rock.

Along with the rest of Palestine, Duma (also known as Douma) was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. In the 2006 census, it had a population of 2,220 inhabitants.

Duma has been under Israel's illegal occupation since 1967, an occupation which is constantly criticized, though never seriously deterred by the outside world.

Today there are more than 500,000 illegal settlers living in 100 illegal settlements which surround villages like Duma.

Palestinians are subject to terrorist random attacks from those settlers who are rarely punished by Israeli authorities. Hiding behind international inter-faith pretensions of neutrality, the world allows this brutal occupation to expand without hinderance.

Five months have passed since July 31, 2015, when 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsheh, his father Sa'ad, his mother Reham, and his 4-year-old brother Ahmed, were sleeping in their beds when their Duma house was fire-bombed.

Ali died in the attack. His father Sa'ad, 32, and his mother Reham, died later from severe burns. Ahmed clings to life in Israel's Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer. (Ali and his parents are shown above.)

Haaretz reported the attack:

"According to witnesses, at roughly 4 A.M. Friday morning [July 31], two masked men arrived at two homes in the village of Duma, not far from the settlement of Migdalim.

"They sprayed painted graffiti reading 'revenge"' and 'long live the Messiah' in Hebrew, breaking the windows of the homes and throwing two firebombs inside."

Five months after those three murders, Israeli settler Amiram Ben-Uliel and a minor the police call A, were arrested in connection with the deaths of the three members of the Dawabsheh family.

Haaretz reported:

"Ben-Uliel (below) was charged Sunday with three counts of murder in connection with last July's arson attack in Duma. He was a familiar figure in the West Bank. Until now, though, he had never been arrested on suspicion of involvement in serious violent activities.