Terror Victim to PM: Why Do You Release Terrorists?

At a ceremony honoring Israelis and Jews who have been killed in terror attacks, Rami Cohen, a victim of an attack himself, shouted down Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, accusing him of giving terrorists a pass by releasing them before their sentences were up. Netanyahu has several times given his consent to wholesale releases of terrorists as “gestures” to the Palestinian Authority.

Unfazed, Netanyahu addressed Levy by saying that he understood the man’s concern. “I, too, am a victim of loss, and share the same suffering with you,” the Prime Minister said, referring to his brother Yoni, Hy”d, who was killed in the 1976 rescue operation to extract Israeli and Jewish hostages who were being held by terrorists in Uganda.

This is not the first time Cohen has interrupted Netanyahu at the ceremony, which was held as part of Memorial Day events. “Two years ago, I cried when you released terrorists, and you said then that it was the hardest decision you ever had to make. Terror has again visited my family – two months ago my brother was attacked by a terrorist, and I still have not recovered from the wounds I sustained in an attack 15 years ago.”

Rami Cohen’s brother Tzvika Cohen, 48, was injured in a terror attack at the Maale Adumim Mall in February. Cohen worked there as a security guard, and was on duty early on a Friday morning when a terrorist attacked him with an axe. He is still in a coma. Rami Cohen was injured in a shooting attack in 2000.

“We are in a national struggle for our survival, and I salute all those who came to this ceremony. We stand for brotherhood and we extend our hand in peace to the nations of the world and to our neighbors. We believe in the statement ‘nation shall not lift up the sword to other nations’. This was a statement of our prophets, and this continues to guide us. Our enemies refuse to make peace, they see us as a target for terrorism. They mass on old men and ladies, their desire for murder is the result of their blind hate, the result of endless incitement.”