Tragic Pesach in Israel
'Even as we freely debate the rights and wrongs of the judicial tsunami, Israelis should know we will always have their back.'
We stand is solidarity with the people of Israel who yet again suffered the hateful scourge of terrorism last week.
The murder of a mother and her two daughters, and the attack that killed an Italian tourist, came as the country still grapples with an internal crisis sparked by the government’s controversial judicial overhaul. After a tragic Pesach, and as the 75th Yom Ha’atzmaut draws near, these are troubled times.
Israel reeled after last Friday’s onslaught on British olah Lucy Dee and her two daughters Rina and Maia, who were killed when a Palestinian gunman fired on their car at Hamra in the West Bank, killing the two sisters and critically wounding their mother, who later also died.
At Lucy’s funeral, attended by thousands of mourners, the eldest surviving daughter, Keren, eulogised her mother. The 17-year-old reflected that “to lose a mother is like losing life”. She said, “My heart hurts so much.”
That same Friday, Alessandro Parini died in a terrorist car ramming in Tel Aviv, in which a 45-year-old resident of Kfar Kassem, east of Tel Aviv, drove into pedestrians.
Both attacks occurred after a rise in tensions between Israel and its neighbours, with Israel responding to rocket fire by striking Palestinian terrorist targets in Gaza, southern Lebanon and Syria, and Israeli police raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during observances of Pesach and Ramadan. Meanwhile, a suspected Iranian drone was launched into Israel from Syria.
There has also been an increase in organised Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, even though Israel has insisted there are no plans to change longstanding arrangements for Jews to visit the area but not pray at the site administered by the Muslim Waqf.
Conflating Israel’s internal and external tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who announced a “timeout” for the judicial changes — has blamed the terrorist spike on his predecessors for showing weakness in the region. Protesters accused the PM of “cowardice and weakness”.
On April 24 it will be Yom Hazikaron, memorial day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Jews in Australia mourn the latest terror victims. Even as we freely debate the rights and wrongs of the judicial tsunami, Israelis should know we will always have their back.