“I raised my daughter with love, you taught your son to hate.”
Hallel Yaffa’s mother, Rena Ariel . (photo credit:DAVID BRINN)
Sobbing, Rena Ariel caressed the blue shroud-covered body of her daughter Hallel Yaffa, 13, before uttering her final parting words to the girl who had been a brilliant student and who loved to dance.
“I am giving you one last hug,” Ariel said on Thursday evening as she eulogized Hallel in front of the hundreds of mourners who filled the small park a short walk from their home in Kiryat Arba near Hebron.
Just the night before, Hallel had performed in Jerusalem with the Harikud dance troop.
In the morning she slept late. According to Kiryat Arba Regional Council, she had planned to spend time with her stepfather Amichai when she awoke helping him in his boutique vineyard.
She was alone in the house and still sleeping when 17-year-old Muhammad Tarayrah sneaked into her bedroom and stabbed her to death.
At the funeral, Ariel called out to Tarayrah’s mother.
“I am standing here with a heart filled with pain and I am turning to you, the Arab mother, the Muslim who sent your son out to stab,” Ariel said as she raised her arm and pointed her finger in the air. “I raised my daughter with love, but you and the Arab Muslim educators, you taught him to hate. Go, put your house in order,” she said as she shook with anger.
It was one of the few moments in the brief eulogy in which she was not crying as she spoke.
With her eyes to the sky, she called out to God and asked, “How do you eulogize a 13-and-a-half-year-old girl. Tell me what words to use to eulogize a flower, a pure soul, who is courageous and beautiful… Full article at JPost
