The mother of two young brothers who were killed by a Palestinian terrorist this week slammed a crowdfunding campaign raising funds for Huwara, the village where her sons were murdered that was rampaged by Jewish rioters seeking revenge.
Labor party lawmaker Yaya Fink launched the online crowdfunding campaign the morning after the rioting, raising funds for the families of the victims of the riots and for those who had their property damaged. More than a hundred Palestinians were wounded and one was killed.
The campaign has raised close to half a million dollars (NIS 1,700,000), from more than 11,300 Israeli donors.
The rampage, deemed the worst ever outbreak of violence from Israeli residents of the West Bank, was broadly condemned by senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog and was termed a “terror attack” by military officials and several arrests were made.
It came hours after a terrorist opened fire near Huwara at close range on a car carrying Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, before fleeing the scene.
Mourners take part in the funeral of Israeli settlers, brothers Yagel Yaniv, 20, and Hallel Yaniv, 22, at the military cemetery in Jerusalem on February 27, 2023, a day after they were shot dead as they drove through Huwara town in the occupied West Bank. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty)
The car was found riddled with bullet holes from a makeshift submachine gun popular with Palestinians. The terrorist has not yet been found.
“I get up every morning looking out at the village of murderers Huwara, where the murderer of my sons is walking around,” Esti Yaniv said in a video posted online Thursday. “The village of murderers, where treats were handed out [in celebration of the murder].”
She said she was “horrified” by the crowdfunding drive, which she called “a backward campaign for the people who handed out baklavas after the murder of my children.”
“In this face of this campaign of darkness, we’ve come with a campaign to bring light,” she added.
Fink defended the move by saying he serves “50 days of reserve duty a year” dedicated to fighting Palestinian terror.
“I still think, even if I’ll be the last one to say it, that we need to fight terrorists and eliminate them, but there are innocents among Palestinians, and those who set their homes ablaze and burn innocents have forgotten their humanity and forgotten how to be Jewish,” he said.
“It’s only a small deed, but as the Jewish proverb goes, ‘A little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness,’” Fink told the Times of Israel in a Monday interview.
Fink said he was motivated to do something after seeing the “horrifying” images of yarmulke- wearing Jews rioting.
“As a religious Jew myself… I felt that I could not be silent under such circumstances,” Fink said. “They’re creating a warped new Judaism and using the name of the True One in vain.”
Fink said that background checks would be conducted to ensure that the money did not get into the hands of Palestinians with security offenses.
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