Israel mourns ‘lion of strength’
In scenes reminiscent of the night Yitzhak Rabin was killed, thousands of young Israelis huddled together, lit candles, and sang slow songs with tears in their eyes.For hours before Sunday’s late-night funeral they sat there, at the mall where Ari Fuld went earlier in the day to shop — and had his life ended by a terrorist.
One of the more relaxed spots in the West Bank, the mall in Gush Etzion is a place where young people normally love to hang out, visiting cafes and fashion shops. But on Sunday evening none of this appealed — people just wanted to mourn.
They were struggling to process what had happened at the shopping centre, when 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin pounced on Fuld. Accounts from the scene are eerie. Paramedic Raphael Poch told The AJN of the “blood on the floor and torn clothes that had been taken off the victim”.
The crowds were quick to assemble and the outpouring of grief was particularly strong, for despite Israel’s experience of terror, the murder of a father-of-four in his prime still comes as a shock. There reaction was especially large in this case because he was a man who many on the Israeli right saw as a spokesman — an American immigrant who mastered social media to talk to the wider world about Israel in a way that many struggle to do.
“Ari impacted thousands and tens of thousands all over the world,” said his father Yonah, adding that he would sometimes wake up at 3am and see that even at this time his son was writing online to increase understanding of Israel.
He also had big following of people he knew as a lecturer, rabbi, activist, assistant director of Standing Together which supports IDF soldiers, and teacher of both religious studies and karate.
One of many relations who eulogised him said that he “had the weight of the world on his shoulders because he put it there.”
Late Sunday, as midnight approached, the crowds moved from the mall to Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, where the funeral took place. His son Yakir talked about the fact that his father struggled on after being stabbed to shoot the terrorist and save others, calling him a hero.
His widow Miriam said in a eulogy: “We were born less than 24 hours apart and it seems we lived our lives side by side. no one knew it would be cut so short this morning on your way to do the shopping that I asked you to do.” There were tears and shrinks of grief around the room as she promised to take care of their children and said: “Thank you for 24 crazy years together, and for four beautiful strong amazing children you have given me. I love you, I love you.”
Fuld’s father, a well-known rabbi, said his son “celebrated every moment and every breath.” The name Ari means lion and he said that his son was a “lion of strength, of passion, of love for his family, for the Land of Israel, for Torah.”
Yonah Fuld broke down as he tried to speak about the story of Abraham, who is said to have been ready to take a knife and sacrifice his son but stopped by an angel. Why, he asked, did an angel not intervene with his son’s attacker? “Where was the angel stopping him?”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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