WATCH: Mother of dead Jewish teen condemns Abu Khdeir killing
Rachel Fraenkel, the mother of Naftali Fraenkel, who was buried last week, says she shares the pain of the Palestinian youngster's parents.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFRachel Frankel, Mother of missing teen Naftali Frankel(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI)
No parents should have to endure the loss of a child, Rachel Fraenkel said as she reached out through the media to the parents of the murdered Jerusalem teenager, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16.On Monday evening, she spoke to journalists outside her Nof Ayalon home, as she ended the seven-day mourning period (shiva) for her son, Naftali, also 16, who was also murdered."No mother or father go through what we are going through now. We share the pain of the parents of Muhammad Abu Khdeir,” Fraenkel said.Her son, along with Gil-Ad Shaer, 16 and Eyal Yifrah, 19, were killed on June 12 by Hamas operatives who abducted them from a hitchhiking post in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.Their bodies were found 18 days later under a pile of rocks in a field outside of Hebron.On Wednesday, just one day after the funerals of the three Jewish teens, an Israeli-Arab teen was abducted from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.His partially burned body was found in the nearby forest. Six Jewish Israelis have been arrested in connection with the arrest, which is assumed to be a revenge attack for the three slain teens.Almost immediately Nafatli's uncle, Yishai, denounced Muhammad's murder.On Monday, Naftali's mother, Rachel added, ”Even in the depth of the mourning over our son, it is hard for me to describe how distressed we were over the outrage that happened in Jerusalem – the shedding of innocent blood is against morality, it is against the Torah and Judaism, it is against the basis of our life in this country.“The murderers of our children, who ever sent them, who ever helped them and who ever incited toward that murder – will all be brought to justice, but it will be them, and no innocent people, it will be done the government, the police, the justice department and not by vigilantes.”"The legacy of the life and the death of Naftali, Gil-Ad and Eyal is a legacy of love, of humanity, of national unity,” she said.
