*Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
A mother in Israel can teach the truth to the entire Western world. I’ve just left the Shiva for former hostage, Amit Buskila who was buried yesterday in Kiryat Gat after eight months of uncertainty regarding her fate.
On my way to paying this shiva call, I heard on the radio that the international court in the Hague was seeking to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu for war crimes, that the European Union had expressed its condolences for the death of the Iranian president, and that the UN marked his death with a moment of silence. It is, indeed, a topsy-turvy world.
But Ilana Buskila, Amit’s mother, isn’t confused at all. That is what she told me:
"Every day of life is a precious gift. I was privileged to have a gift, my Amit, for 28 years. She was an innocent girl who was murdered by Amalek. In my mind, I believe that Amit was protecting us, protecting me. The terrorists would have reached Kiryat Gat if they hadn’t been delayed for so long at the Festival.
Amit was murdered just because she was a Jew. Any Jew who was there would have been murdered. A rabbi explained to me today that she has risen to the highest level of heaven, as a martyr of the Jewish people. Her last words on the phone with her uncle were: 'Shema Yisrael'. This was her last will and testament.
For eight months, we didn’t know that these were her last words. We thought she was still alive. She gave us an additional eight months of strength, of prayer, of unity, of speaking about her to the entire the world. There was nothing we didn’t do on her behalf. People transformed their entire lives for the sake of Amit Esther bat Ilana. And people will continue to do good deeds in her memory.
We consider it a great Chesedthat her body was recovered and returned to us and are deeply grateful to all the people involved in this operation.
Immediately following Simchat Torah, Amit’s friend went back to the area where the festival took place to look for her. She didn’t find Amit but, to her horror, she did discover the atrocities that were perpetrated there. She filmed what she saw and her documentation contributed to the New York Times’ investigation into the violence that occurred during the attack.
The only moral thing to do now is to erase this evil from the face of the earth. They are absolute evil, and my daughter was all light, pure gold".
A thousand international jurists and foreign diplomats will never achieve the moral clarity and pure faith of Ilana. And, in the end, this truth will prevail.
