Burial society demands terror victim families pay NIS 200k
Hevra Kadisha refuses offer by businesswoman to cover funeral expenses, will collect funds from French Jewish community
The Hevra Kadisha burial society demanded Tuesday that the families of four Jewish men killed in a Paris terror attack and buried in Jerusalem each pay NIS 50,000 ($12,500) for their burials, Israeli media reported.
The burial society’s demand for a total of NIS 200,000 ($50,000) came after the families refused to have the victims buried in multi-story graves, and instead opted for in-ground burials at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery, according to the Ynet news website.
Hevra Kadisha is expected to collect the funds from the Jewish community in France.
The Hevra Kadisha manager in Jerusalem, Hillel Horowitz, refused an offer by an Israeli-French businesswoman to cover the burial expenses on behalf of the families, the news site reported.
Many burials in Israel take place in large multi-story grave complexes necessitated by a lack of space in the small country’s cemeteries.
Thousands of mourners gathered Tuesday for the funerals of Yoav Hattab, Yohan Cohen, Francois-Michel Saada and Philippe Braham, five days after they were killed by an Islamist gunman at a kosher supermarket in Paris.
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and other Israeli and French officials.
While the families delivered heartfelt eulogies for their loved ones, Israel’s leaders denounced Islamic extremism and the terrorists it is producing, and urged the world to confront the violence and restore security.
Netanyahu’s office announced on Sunday that the funerals would take place in Jerusalem after he had acceeded to a request from the families to bury the four in Israel.
The decision came after the Foreign Ministry reached out to the families with an offer to bury the victims in Israel, despite the fact that they were not Israeli citizens, and the families accepted.
The four Jewish victims were among 17 people gunned down in Paris during three days of bloodshed that began with a grisly attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, in a wave of violence that convulsed France and sent shockwaves through its Jewish community, the third-largest in the world.
The four Jews were laid to rest after the joint funeral at the sprawling Givat Shaul cemetery which began shortly after noon.
AFP and Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.