Asher Hillel Palmer and his infant son Yonatan will be recognized as
terror victims, the Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday morning in
an announcement to the National Insurance Institute. The two were killed
when their car overturned on Route 60 outside Kiryat Arba on Friday.
The
statement came after the Defense Ministry received the findings of a
police investigation which confirmed that the father and son from Kiryat
Arba were killed as a result of rock throwing, not a car accident as originally reported by the IDF.
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Man, baby killed when car overturns near Kiryat Arba
'IDF not telling truth about fatal W. Bank car accident'Details of the incident began to emerge on Sunday, after the
family of Palmer, 25, reached an agreement with the state to allow for blood
samples to be taken from his body and that of Yonatan, in order to determine the
cause of death.
Palmer’s family had initially refused the state
permission to conduct an autopsy on the bodies, and the state petitioned the
Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court against the family’s decision.
When the
court refused the petition, the state immediately appealed the lower court’s
ruling directly in the High Court of Justice.
The High Court issued a
temporary injunction delaying the magistrate’s court’s ruling ahead of a hearing
scheduled for Sunday, but the hearing was cut short after both sides reached an
agreement that blood samples could be taken from the bodies.
More than a thousand people crowded a parking lot in Kiryat Arba on Sunday
evening, to bid farewell to the deceased.
Asher’s
brother-in-law, Aharon Peretz told the mourners, “Asher, you were my beloved,
noble brother-in- law. Yonatan, my nephew, people used to stop me in the street
and say what a little angel your sister has, with eyes as blue as the heavens, a
baby that at only 10 months old started to walk. Asher, the love of my heart,
who never said anything loud, always spoke softly, always with a pure
heart.”
His voice cracking as he burst into tears, Peretz added “I want
to tell you one thing, we promise you that we will take care of your mother,
Yonatan. We will take care of her, and we will try as much as possible to make
sure that you are happy up in heaven with how we take care of her. And we want
you to make sure to protect her and us from up above as well. We love you and
miss you every second.”
After the eulogies ended, mourners carried the
body of Asher and a tiny prayer shawl carrying Yonatan to a waiting van, in
which they were taken for burial in Hebron.