JERUSALEM (JTA) — The groom from the wedding where Jewish revelers were captured on video celebrating the deaths of members of a Palestinian family in a firebombing has been charged with animal abuse.
Yakir Eshbal, who was arrested and questioned after the wedding video was made public, was indicted Tuesday along with three friends.
The indictment filed in Jerusalem Magistrates Court accuses Eshbal and the other men of trying to hang a dog by his neck from a tree in an incident that was recorded on video. The incident came to light during the investigation into the West Bank firebombing in the village of Duma that killed three members of the Dawabshe family — an 18-month-old baby and his parents.
The wedding video shows friends of the suspected assailants in the July attack in Duma stabbing a photo of the family and waving knives, rifles, pistols and Molotov cocktails. The revelers also chant the words to a song that includes a verse from Judges 16:28, in which Samson says, “Let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” The crowd substitutes “Palestinians” for Philistines.
Those shown in the video celebrating the deaths have been condemned from across Israel’s political and religious spectrum.
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