Rishon boy drowned by his mother is laid to rest

Olga Borisov's requests to attend son's funeral denied.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Olga Borisov 224.88 (photo credit: Channel 2)
Olga Borisov 224.88
(photo credit: Channel 2)
Shocked family members gathered at Kibbutz Brenner's cemetery south of Rishon Lezion on Sunday to bury four-year-old Alon Yehuda, whose mother drowned him off a Bat Yam beach Friday night. "I will never forget you Alon," said his broken-voiced father, Ilan Yehuda. Rahel, the boy's grandmother, was pushed by a daughter in a wheelchair toward the grave. "Alon, how could this happen?" she cried. Olga Borisov, Alon's mother, had asked the Petah Tikva District Court to allow her attend the funeral, but her request was rejected. Borisov's lawyer, Tali Gotman, petitioned the High Court of Justice, but that request was also rejected. "We believe this is an unusual case," Gotman told The Jerusalem Post as she waited to hear the High Court's decision. "Olga, who is mentally ill, wanted to attend the funeral, but the court rejected her request because they say it would be too dangerous to have her in the same place as the family members." Yehuda was convicted two years ago of violence toward Borisov, a factor the High Court cited when it said the mother must not attend the funeral due to fears of an incident breaking out. Yehuda had repeatedly said he supported his wife's request to attend the funeral, "with all of the pain involved." "Olga loved her son; we did not see this coming," a sister of Yehuda said. "Maybe it was all the media stories on Rose Pizem [the four year-old girl allegedly killed by her grandfather and dumped in the Yarkon River] that triggered this. She was depressed, and hearing this story about Rose could be related." "I can't sleep at nights," a neighbor said. "This does not make any sense. There were never any issues like this before. She was so protective of him. I am worried about Yehuda; he needs to have people around him. He has lost his entire world." The neighbor described Alon as an unusually intelligent boy who was fond of naming car companies by looking at their symbols. "He identified the Volkswagen sign. How many four-year-olds talk about that?" she said. Photographers kept their distance from the funeral when family members complained of the intense media spotlight. But they gathered around Alon's grave after the mourners left to take close-ups of the freshly dug earth. "There's no explanation for what happened," the stunned neighbor said.