28-Oct-13: The body says it is time to admit defeat. The soul insists we persevere

Outside Ofer Prison, north Jerusalem, tonight
[Image Source: UPI]

The opinion piece below appears on the Times of Israel website at this hour.

Join us tonight in saying “We have had enough”
Times of Israel | Frimet Roth | October 28, 2013

It is a debilitating fight; demanding justice for your own and other dead children. The adversary is mighty, wily and contemptuous of these children. Yes, and by adversary I mean prime minister Netanyahu and his obedient ministers. The body says it is time to admit defeat but the soul insists we persevere. It has been a long journey.

Nearly thirteen years ago we were first taught by our government’s leaders that politics trumps all else, including concern for our us, for justice and for what was done to our children.

Time and again this painful message has been conveyed to us. Here is how:

1. Our leaders knew that on August 9, 2001, two armed terrorists were walking the streets of Jerusalem intent on committing an attack. They knew this from intelligence information. Nevertheless they chose to conceal it from the public. The consequence: the Sbarro bombing that killed 7 adults and 8 children between the ages of 2 and 16, including our daughter. This ugly fact was revealed by then Minister of Justice, Meir Sheetrit, in a television interview several days later. Minus any hint of an apology.
2. Our prime minister freed our child’s self-confessed, convicted murderer along with 1,026 other terrorists in the Shalit Deal.
3. Our prime minister declared publicly that he had sent letters of explanation and commiseration to all victim-families whose loved ones were wronged by that release. He was lying. None of us ever received one. But his shameless staff repeatedly recounted for us in detail how and when those fictitious letters were sent.
4. Our prime minister decided that freeing our child’s murderer was an insufficient gift to that evil woman. So one year later, he lifted an explicit condition of the release of her fiancé – also a freed, convicted murderer – to leave the West Bank and join her in Jordan.
5. Thanks to our prime minister’s generosity, those two unrepentant murderers were married in a spectacular, high-profile, Hamas- sponsored wedding given live television coverage and reported by major news media.
6. Every one of the numerous letters we sent over the past three years to our prime minister regarding the denial of justice in the case of our murdered child has gone unanswered. Simply and utterly ignored.
7. An Israeli court decision, reported last week, means that our government is now going to hand over to his family the body of the human bomb used by our child’s murderer, the suicide bomber. That Israeli court ruling contrasts starkly with the consistent refusal of the Bagatz (High Court) to intervene on behalf of Israeli victims of terror on the grounds that ours are “political”, not judicial, matters.

As with previous prisoner releases, in conjunction with the upcoming tranche, Netanyahu announced fresh settlement construction. His “carrot” to appease us. He ought to know by now that we will not be deflected by some strategically placed bricks and mortar.

There is no substitute for our children’s and this entire nation’s inalienable right to justice.

Please do not allow tonight’s demonstration [details] to appear like the personal protest of a few disgruntled victim families. Join us. Make your voices heard. Show our leaders that you too are incensed. That you too comprehend that their erosion of our judiciary and deterrence is endangering us all.

...

Tonight's protest gathering outside Ofer Prison, in which we took part
[Image Source: Ynet]

UPDATE: Tonight's (Monday night's) protest outside Ofer Prison was covered in reports by Associated Press, Times of Israel, Ynet, Jerusalem Post, JTA and Israel National News which says that tomorrow, Tuesday,

two busloads will transport the convicted terrorists from Ofer Prison, located north of Jerusalem, to the Erez and Tarqumiya checkpoints in the government-sanctioned release. Prior to their release, they will be identified and examined by representatives of the International Red Cross. The terrorists will not be required to sign a document stating they will not return to terrorist activities.