Judge orders release of suspects seen dancing in 'Jewish extremist wedding' video

The suspects – who include the groom – will be kept in custody until Thursday morning, in order to allow police to appeal the decision.

By BEN HARTMAN
Updated: DECEMBER 31, 2015 03:13
Ali Dawabsha. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Ali Dawabsha.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
A Jerusalem District Court judge on Wednesday ordered the release of three suspects arrested a day earlier after they were allegedly filmed at a wedding dancing with guns and cheering the firebomb murder of a Palestinian toddler and his parents.
The suspects – who include the groom – will be kept in custody until Thursday morning, in order to allow police to appeal the decision. One of the three suspects includes a minor arrested on Tuesday as well.
A fourth suspect arrested on Tuesday will remain in custody as he is an IDF soldier and thus the responsibility of the Military Police, a spokesman for the Judea and Samaria District said Wednesday.
The suspects are allegedly part of a group of residents caught on film dancing at the wedding held in Jerusalem earlier this month. In the footage which was first broadcast by Channel 10 last week, a large group of young men can be seen dancing and singing, while a number of them hold guns and knives aloft and one of them repeatedly stabs a photo of 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha, who was killed with his parents in the arson attack on their family home in the Palestinian village of Duma in July.
The video was met by widespread condemnation in Israel, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that the people seen in the video are fringe extremists who do not represent the right wing.
“Israel is a land of the rule of law. We will not tolerate a situation where a particular group refuses to accept the laws of the state, and carries out acts of murder,” Netanyahu said