Mother Of Murdered American: Palestinians Must Stop Paying My Son’s Killer
(JTA) — The mother of American yeshiva student Ezra Schwartz, who was shot to death by a Palestinian assailant in the West Bank, told a United Nations forum that his murderer should not be rewarded.
Ruth Schwartz said Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority pays a monthly stipend to Mohammed Abed Odeh Harub, who was sentenced by an Israeli court to four life sentences for the November 2015 attack.
Ezra Schwartz, 18, from Sharon, Massachusetts, was on a gap year studying at a yeshiva in Israel. He was killed when Harub opened fire near Alon Shvut in the Etzion bloc on a minivan full of students and teachers who were volunteering to clear a nearby park.
“Ezra’s murder broke our family; we will never be the same without him,” Ruth Schwartz told the special U.N. forum on the glorification of terrorism, Ynet reported. The forum was organized by Israel’s mission to the United Nations and the Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs.
She said the payments, which add up to thousands of dollars a month, have to stop.
“My son’s killer and his family should not be compensated for murdering innocent people. It is just another way to glorify and encourage terrorism. It’s offensive and wrong,” she said.
