President Reuven Rivlin paid a condolence visit Thursday morning to the family of Dafna Meir who was killed in a brutal stabbing inside her home in Otniel on Sunday. 

The President expressed his sorrow over Dafna’s death and warmly embraced each member of the Meir family. 

Natan, Dafna’s husband, told Rivlin, “The message I want to spread and which I have repeated to all those who have come to pay their condolences, is to stop sharpening swords, and look for what unites us.

“We know well the hatred, enough of this,” he continued. “The true solution is love. I talk with my children each night, and I have not heard from them one word of hatred.”

Rivlin was deeply moved by Natan’s remarks, telling him, “Your words go straight to the heart, and reverberate around the whole country. These words should guide us all.”

Speaking with Renana, the Meir’s eldest daughter, the President said: “I listened along with the whole people your wonderful eulogy of your dear mother. Your close bond, and the wonderful way you spoke of that relationship, left a deep impression.”

“Dafna, in all that she achieved, was full of love for others,” Rivlin added. 

“This is what I wish will be remembered,” Natan told him. “Dafna saw each and every one as a person, a human being, and learned Arabic in order to better care for her fellow man. Dafna’s loss is both personal, and communal. I hope that her sacrifice will be remembered for her kindness to others. She believed, as we do, that love is so much more powerful than hate.”

“Our people are listening to you closely,” Rivlin promised the Meir family. “Our people will remember Dafna for her wonderful deeds.”   

At the end of his visit, the President together with the family, planted a laurel tree, in Hebrew called a dafna tree, at the entry to the family’s home in memory of Dafna.