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Bereaved father: Stop the terrorist prisoners’ benefits

July 6, 2016

Ron Kehrmann, whose 17-year-old daughter Tal was murdered in a suicide terror attack on a bus in Haifa in 2003, on Wednesday said he supported the demand by the parents of IDF soldier Oron Shaul that the government end the cushy conditions enjoyed by convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons.

“The wheel keeps turning, but the principle remains the same and only the names change.” Kehrmann, who has held similar public protests in the past, told Arutz Sheva.

“In 2011 [before the Gilad Shalit deal] we fought the government and urged it not to give in to terrorism. The prime minister did not succeed then in sending the message that it does not pay to kidnap soldiers or hold their bodies and today we are paying the price,” he continued, before adding that worsening the conditions of the terrorist prisoners will send the right message.

“We must stop this lenient treatment towards them, no TV and no going to school. War is not a pleasant thing, but there is no choice but to take off the gloves and start to fight if we want the bodies back,” said Kehrmann.

“It is inconceivable that the terrorists will not sit in jail for the rest of their lives. We should not engage in any negotiations with them. Until now six Israelis were killed by those released in 2011 [during the Gilad Shalit deal]. I support the Shaul family in their fight,” he stressed.

Earlier on Wednesday, Zehava and Herzl Shaul, parents of Oron Shaul who was killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, turned to Israel Prison Service Director-General Ofra Klinger and to Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, in order to demand that they stop the many benefits to the terrorist prisoners.

“We are turning to you after we were amazed to find out over the past few days of the decision to approve the provision of a variety of benefits to 3,500 prisoners from the Hamas organization imprisoned in Israeli prisons, including an increase to the canteen budget of 200 shekels, opening sports channels to watch broadcasts from the Euro 2016 (soccer) tournament, and the addition of soft-boiled eggs at meals,” the Shauls wrote in their letter.

“We hope you will work to cancel your decision to grant these benefits immediately, and to prevent Hamas prisoners from watching the Euro semi-finals,” the letter continued.

The parents expressed their outrage over the decision to grant more benefits to Hamas prisoners, while the terror group refuses to even respond to calls to release their son’s body, along with that of IDF Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, without extracting unrealistically high concessions from the Israeli government.

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