Palestinians in Condolence Visit to Ansbacher Family

YERUSHALAYIM

A delegation of Palestinians and Israeli activists made a condolence visit to the Ansbacher family in Tekoa on Tuesday.

“We believe that the violent path brings nothing but violence,” said Ziyad Sabatin, of the town of Husan, outside the home of the Ansbacher family.

“There’s no religion in the world that supports this kind of act,” he told Israeli station 103FM during his visit. Ori Ansbacher, Hy”d 19, was brutally murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Yerushalayim last Thursday.

Asked by an interviewer what motivated him to go to the Ansbachers, he explained that Israeli friends had accompanied him on a condolence visit in Ramallah to the family of Aisha Rabi, a Palestinian mother of eight killed in a rock-throwing attack by a suspected Jewish terrorist.

“We went there to pay condolences together with Israeli friends, and we came to console here today,” he was quoted by The Times of Israel as saying.

He was among a group of roughly a dozen Palestinian peace activists who wished to console the Ansbacher family, he said. Asked why Israelis don’t often hear about Palestinians who care about Israeli dead, he blamed the media.

Meretz MK Mossi Raz, who participated in the visit, told the Kan broadcaster, “There are no words to describe the condemnation, rage, anger and sorrow. I’ll do everything I can so that this will be the last” death in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He said that he was “happy that Palestinians were part of this visit.”

Meanwhile, Arab MK Aida Touma-Sliman from the Joint Arab List had a less conciliatory message, as she denied the murder had any connection to the Palestinian cause, and accused the Israeli government of smearing the Palestinians.

Denying that the crime was committed out of nationalistic motives, she wrote on Twitter, “If the criminal is Palestinian it doesn’t make it less shocking; he cannot possibly be part of the struggle for national liberation.

“This government is the criminal when it uses Ori’s murder to continue tarnishing the struggle of the Palestinian people with a heinous crime committed by one person.”

MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu) wrote in response: “Unfortunately, the State of Israel, which is dealing with terrorists who are trying to harm it from the outside, is also forced to deal with terrorists who try to harm it from within the Knesset. I suggest that MK Sliman look for another place to promote her destructive agendas,” said Ilatov.

The suspect in Ansbacher’s killing confessed to the crime, and was quoted by Shin Bet interrogators as saying that he wanted to be a “martyr,” and if released, would go back and kill again.

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