By Anees Barghouthy
TEL AVIV, Israel
Thousands of people took to the streets of cities across Israel on Saturday night to protest about an arson attack on a Palestinian family that killed an 18-month-old boy.
Ali Saeed Dawabsheh burned to death when Jewish extremists torched his family home in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday.
In Tel Aviv, Ali’s uncle Ghassan Dawabsheh addressed a Peace Now rally.
“These killers burned my family members who were sleeping peacefully in their house,” he told the crowd.
Aiming his remarks at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he added: “Why Ali was murdered? Why was his family burned? What did they do to the Israeli army or the Jewish settlers?
“Before Ali there was also Mohammed Abu Khdeir and we do not know who is next in line.”
Khdeir, 16, was kidnapped and killed by Israeli settlers in July last year in East Jerusalem.
The demonstration was also attended by several Israeli leaders including former President Shimon Perez and opposition leader Isaac Herzog.
The Haaretz newspaper reported on its website that Herzog told the demonstration in Rabin Square that "terror is terror, period. Terrorists are terrorists, period, whether Muslim or Jewish."
He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, to "tackle Jewish terrorism like Islamist terror."
Other demonstrations were held in Haifa, Beersheba and Jerusalem.
