Israel Matzav

Terror victim's Mum: Better that his murderers have never been caught

I'm sure that many of you remember Koby Mandell HY"D (May God avenge his blood), the kid who skipped school one day ten years ago with his friend Yosef Ish-Ran, only to be murdered by stone-throwing 'Palestinians.' Koby's Mom, Sherrie, says that Koby's murderers have never been caught, and after Tuesday's terrorists for Gilad trade, she's happy that they haven't been caught (Hat Tip: Leah P).

MOST PEOPLE don’t understand the continuing devastation of grief: fathers who die of heart attacks, mothers who get sick with cancer, children who leave school, families whose only child was murdered. We see depression, suicide, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. You wouldn’t believe how many victims’ families are still on sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. We see the pain that doesn’t diminish with time. We literally see people die of grief.

Bereaved families face acute psychological isolation.

Nobody understands us, they often complain.

They mean that nobody understands the duration or the severity of their pain and longing. In the aftermath of a prisoner exchange, this isolation will only be exacerbated.

So will the feeling that our children’s deaths don’t matter.

When people tell me that my son Koby died for nothing, I always used to say: No, it is our job to make his death mean something.

But now I am not sure. It seems that the government is conspiring to ensure that our loved ones’ deaths were for nothing.

Cheapening our loved ones’ deaths only enhances the pain. If Israel is willing to free our loved ones’ murderers, then the rest of the world can look on and assume that the terrorists are really freedom fighters or militants. If Palestinians were murdering Jews in cold blood without justification, surely the Israeli government wouldn’t release them.

No sane government would.

When we were sitting shiva for Koby, a general in the army told us: “We will bring the killers to justice.” I believed him. I took his words to heart. Today I am thankful my son’s killers have not been found. So are my children. Of course, I don’t want the terrorists to kill again. But if they were to be released in this prisoner exchange, I don’t think I could bear it.

We don’t want other families to be put in our situation.

We don’t want terrorists to be free when our loved ones are six feet underground. Ten years after my son was beaten to death, the pain often feels like a prison. In many ways, I am not free.

We don’t want other terrorists to be emboldened because they know that even if they murder, they may not have to stay in prison. President Shimon Peres says he will pardon but he will not forgive. Terrorist victims’ families will not pardon or forgive the government for this release.

We have been betrayed. To pardon terrorists mocks our love and our pain.

Speaking as an Israeli, we don't want to ever have to understand what you are going through and have been through. But many of us, at least, want to empathize with you and hug you and feel your pain. We too were hurt at the way the government was ready to release so many murderers in exchange for one soldier without so much as granting a hearing to terror victims' families. We too feel cheapened and taken advantage of by today's spectacle. And we hope and pray that it will never happen again.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Koby Mandell, terror victims, Yosef Ish-Ran

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:31 AM