Mohammed Abu Khdeir
Photo: Reuters
Terror victims' group seeks to separate memorialization of Jewish, Arab victims
Almagor Terror Victims Association writes Welfare Minister Katz, National Insurance Institute with request to separate memorialization of Jewish victims of terrorism from that of Arab victims killed by Jews; There is a difference between those murdered to destabilize the state and those murdered by Jews, group says.
A group of bereaved parents contacted Welfare Minister Haim Katz and the National Insurance Institute, demanding to separate Jewish victims of terrorism from Arab victims thereof, in any state memorialization for victims.
The Almagor Terror Victims Association noted in its appeal several instances of Arab Israelis who were murdered by Jews in racially-motivated attacks being afforded memorialization.
Almagor wishes to separate memorialization of Arab victims of Jewish terrorism such as Mohammed Abu Khdeir from that of Jewish victims (Photo: Reuters)
Examples included in the missive were Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the east Jerusalem boy who was brutally murdered by three Jews in 2014, Michel Bahus who was murdered by IDF soldier Eden Natan-Zada in Shfaram in 2005, and Mohammad Abd-Raba who was inadvertently killed by soldiers in Sur Baher in 2002. Some of the aforementioned victims are currently memorialized in the wall commemorating victims of terrorism at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
The bereaved families of Almagor then sought to separate the lists of people murdered, holding one including all those killed in terror attacks whose aims were "persecuting Israel" and another for people killed for nationalistic purposes by Jews.
"Alongside the important question of what the memorialization's goal should be, we must first ask what the goal of terrorism was and what were the goals of its perpetrators," said Yossi Tzur, whose son Assaf was murdered in a suicide bombing in Haifa in 2003.
File photo (Photo: Amit Shabi)
Tzur further claimed there was a significant difference between anyone murdered in an attack meant to destabilize Israel's existence and people murdered by nationalistically-motivated Jews, grave as their crime may be.
"In its shortsightedness, Israel will bring about an absurd situation," the bereaved father lamented.
Almagor did wish to stress they were not referring to financial restitution, but only to the manner in which victims are memorialized.
