Barkan victim’s father calls for Liberman’s termination
Rafi Levengrond says minister won’t fully demolish terrorist’s home because ‘he is afraid of The Hague’ • IDF surrounds house, arrests terrorist’s sister
The father of one of the victims killed by a Palestinian terrorist last month in the Barkan industrial area called Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman a coward, and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire him after he canceled a scheduled meeting with bereaved families.
In a letter to the families of the victims, 29-year-old Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel of Rosh Ha’ayin, and 35-yearold Ziv Hagbi from Rishon Lezion, Liberman said that it was not possible to have an “open dialogue” with them after a call between Leven-grond-Yehezkel’s father and the defense minister was leaked to the media on Tuesday.
“This man cannot govern. If God forbid a war will break out can you trust a person like this who can not come and give me an explanation as to why he wants to do half the job?” Levengrond said of the order given to demolish the basement and first floor of the terrorist’s home.
“I do not believe that Liberman would have wanted to destroy the entire house. He is afraid that the court in The Hague will not allow him to travel around the world,” he told Hadashot news. The defense minister did not attend the funeral or come to comfort the family during the shiva mourning period.
“He is bombing Gaza in the most crowded place in the Middle East, if not in the entire world, and no one is scratched. Is he laughing at us? Does he know what is going on in the Gaza vicinity? A man like this cannot be defense minister. I will fight to remove him as a member of Knesset!” Levengrond said.
Levengrond, who could be heard in the leaked call aired by Hadashot admonishing Liberman for letting them know that the IDF would not fully demolish the terrorist’s home, accused the minister of leaking the recording.
“So, in short, you are doing nothing. Listen, they destroyed my family, why are you taking this into consideration? As far as I’m concerned, if you’re going to demolish a corner of the house, don’t destroy it at all, leave it standing,” he was heard saying.
A defense official then was heard telling Levengrond that there are “legal impediments” to the IDF demolishing the entire home and that there must be “direct connections” between the terrorist’s home and the attack.
“The terrorist lived in this house? Grew up in this house? It’s a direct connection. What is the direct connection to my daughter? You do not destroy half. You either do it all or do nothing,” Levengrond was heard responding to the official. “He [the terrorist] took it upon himself to do something, there are repercussions, it has consequences. What, he will murder people and get away with it like this?”
Following the leaked call the victim’s families received a letter from Liberman telling them that he had wanted to meet to listen to their concerns and update them on the hunt for the terrorist, but it had been canceled.
“Unfortunately, when a conversation with an IDF officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel, who called you on my instructions, is recorded and leaked to the media, with all my sorrow and sympathy [for your situation], it is impossible to hold [an] open dialogue. Therefore, the meeting scheduled for today will not take place,” read the letter.
On Wednesday, Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that a large number of IDF troops surrounded the Na’alwa family home in the West Bank village of Tulkarem, firing stun grenades and breaking down the doors of the home in order to enter.
While Wafa reported that none of the Na’alwa family was inside the two-story home at the time of the raid, unconfirmed reports from Israeli media said that his sister was detained during the raid. Na’alwa’s father, Walid, was detained by Israeli security troops during a pre-dawn raid in the village.
On October 7, 23-yearold Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alwa from the northern West Bank village of Shuweika, shot Levengrond-Yehezkel and Hajbi at a factory run by the Alon Group in the Barkan industrial zone outside Ariel.
Na’alwa, who had a permit to work at the Barkan park – where he had been employed as an electrician for the past seven months at a factory run by the Alon Group – is said to have forced an Arab employee to tie the two victims up before he shot them and fled the scene with the Carl-Gustaf weapon he used.
Na’alwa is still on the run.