Articles

Murder In A Yeshiva

Posted: Mon 31st March 2008 5.48 PM  | Author: Sam Hailes

On Thursday 6th March eight young men, in the very act of
studying the Scriptures, were murdered. Their bullet-ridden
bodies fell among the blood-stained books and Bibles in the
Mercaz Harav Yeshiva – a centre of religious studies in Jerusalem.
The tragedy was compounded in many ways. Their youth for a
start: ages 15 to 26.
 
The oldest, Doron Meherete (pictured bottom row, right), was an
Ethiopian Jew who came to Israel with Operation Solomon in
1991 when he was only eight years old.
With a bright mind and a kind heart, Meherete was always quick to help others. He was a
counsellor in an after-school programme for immigrant Ethiopian  children and was preparing to become a rabbi.

Each of the other young men and boys killed with him was committed to Bible study on a spiritual journey that suddenly ended in a hail of bullets while studying in the yeshiva library.
The fact that their murderer was an Israeli Arab living in Jerusalem added to the horror of this outrage.

Suicide bombers in the past had come mainly from the West Bank area (Judea and Samaria) beyond the security barrier which was so effective in reducing their attacks. But this assailant with his automatic rifle had Israeli identity documents.

At another level the horror of what he had done was compounded by the reaction in Gaza. There, celebration greeted news of the slaughter. It was revenge for the death of many Palestinians in the previous days when the Israeli army took action to stop the barrage of rockets that have been falling on Sderot and Ashkelon.
But that very reaction pointed up the difference. Hamas used children as human shields in Gaza, encouraging them to come on rooftops which they believed Israeli planes might attack, and using their families’ apartment blocks to store missiles and explosives.

When a child was killed as a result of action by the Israeli army, all Israel was shocked by the accident. But when eight young Israelis were deliberately slaughtered, many in Gaza applauded.

How can there be peace, but how can Israel give up trying? 

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