NEW DELHI: A video of Orthodox Jewish wedding guests celebrating the killing of a Palestinian toddler has prompted strong condemnation. The video was aired on Wednesday by Israel’s Channel 10, showing a wedding party from three weeks ago as guests dance with guns and knives. A masked guest is seen raising a firebomb, while another young man repeatedly stabs a photo of Ali Dawabsheh, an 18-month-old Palestinian toddler who was killed in an arson attack led by Israeli settlers in July.

The attack took place when settlers torched the home of the Dawabsheh family in the occupied West Bank village of Duma and killed Ali and his parents, Saad and Reham. Ali’s brother, four years old, was severely burned and is the only survivor.

Although a number of settlers have been detained following the attack, no one has been charged yet -- almost half a year later.

The video was filmed at the wedding of hardline right wing activists who are believed to be close to those suspected to have led the Dawabsheh attack. In it, military-grade rifles and pistols are passed from person-to-person, including children, as a dancing guest takes the knife to a picture of Ali.



Israeli politicians condemned the incident, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, “The shocking pictures that were broadcast ... show the true face of a group that constitutes a danger to Israeli society and to the security of Israel.” Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist Likud party however supports the expansion of settlements into the West Bank, often stepping up the demolition of Palestinian homes to make way for increased settlement plans.

Israeli Agricultural Minister Uri Ariel, an outspoken supporter of the settler movement and a member of the expansionist Jewish Home party, took to Facebook to denounce the video. "The clip published by Channel 10 news this evening is shocking and one cannot allow the activity of radical groups fueled by hate," he wrote, arguing that the people in the video do not represent the settler movement.

More than 547,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements that weave throughout the occupied West Bank. Al Jazeera quoted Ramy Abdu, director of the Gaza chapter of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, saying that the Israeli government subsidises settlements and provides settlers with military protection. "The settlers are merely part of a system that promotes structural violence against Palestinians," Abdu told Al Jazeera. "The Israeli government is only outraged because settlers are showing off and celebrating their happiness about the crimes they do with the [government's] direct or indirect encouragement."

Further, there is a degree of impunity associated with Israeli-led settler violence. A report by rights group Yesh Din notes that at least 91.6 percent of investigation files were closed without an indictment being served, while the number of violent attacks carried out by settlers doubled between August 2014 and August 2015.

"Israeli leaders condemn [settlers'] crimes as part of a propaganda push, but in reality settlers are given a free hand to commit any crimes they want against Palestinians," Abdu told Al Jazeera.

Following the condemnation of the video, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a law to further entrench governmental support for Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank, on Thursday morning.