We thought for certain we were reading wrong. An Israeli Supreme Court justice apologized for . . . for this? Yes, for including words of condolence to the family of a Palestinian terrorist convicted of murdering four people, after the terrorist died in an Israeli hospital. We couldn’t believe such a condolence could be uttered.
Yet, Israeli Justice Neal Hendel told the family of Sami Abu Diak that he, Hendel, “shared in the sorrow of the family” for the death of a man who murdered one Israeli and three Palestinians, and who was serving three life sentences at the time of his death. Diak’s sentence was also imposed for other attempted terrorist attacks by Diak.
Reports JTA: Diak had petitioned the Supreme Court to receive medical treatment he said he was not getting. The prisoner’s family and the Palestinian Authority had petitioned Israel to allow Abu Diak to leave prison and die at home. The request was refused. Hendel issued a ruling on Nov. 27 voiding the complaint in light of Abu Diak’s death in which he said he “shared in the sorrow of the family.”
This family, keep in mind, was paid handsomely, monthly, by the Palestinian Authority for the murders that Diak committed.
Organizations of families of Israelis murdered in terrorist attacks, as well as others, condemned the Israeli justice’s condolences, as did the family of Sami Abu Diak’s innocent Israeli victim, Ilya Krivich.
“I had no intention of hurting anyone. I wish to express my deep regret to bereaved [Israeli] families who were hurt,” Hendel wrote in an apology, the Times of Israel reported.
It should not take an outcry for an Israeli court justice to realize that one does not “share in the sorrow of a family” of a murderer of an Israeli, and of Palestinians.
The court’s decision was recalled and reissued without the condolence, and signed by two other justices alongside Hendel, Haaretz reported. Hendel, incidentally, made aliyah from New York in 1983.
Copyright © 2019 by the Intermountain Jewish News
