Confusion, pressure around burial of Jewish Paris victims

Amid reports of confusion over the burial of the four Jewish men killed in last week’s Paris terror attack, Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett overturned Tuesday evening the decision to charge the families NIS 50,000 ($12,500) for each burial.

Bennett and Deputy Minister Eli Ben-Dahan announced that the ministry would cover the costs.

But the decision came after days of confusion over the funerals, Haaretz reported.

The government even pressured one of the victim’s families to have him buried in Israel, despite their reluctance, according to ZAKA head Yehuda Meshi-Zahav. Earlier reports indicated the families asked to bury the victims in Israel.

Since the victims were not Israeli citizens, and the burials were not officially full state funerals, there was no clear procedure for who would cover the cost. Nor was there clarity on where the victims would be buried.

The Yemenite burial society on the Mount of Olives offered them plots in the ancient cemetery for 15,000 euros ($17,715) apiece, according to sources close to the families. But a member of the burial society denied the price was that high, telling Haaretz that, “There was a price but not that; we gave them a fair offer.”

But, according to Meshi-Zahav, the plots were in a distant and unsafe portion of the cemetery, and the government decided it could not hold the funeral there, likely for security concerns.

Thousands of people attend the funeral of the four Jewish victims in the Paris kosher market terror attack at Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem, on January 13, 2015. (Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A businesswoman then offered the families plots in her private section in Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery, but the deal ran into problems with the rules of the cemetery.

The government and the families then spoke to the Sephardi burial society, who offered them a burial on the Mount of Olives, but the government turned down the proposal.

Finally, after the families refused to have the victims buried in multi-story graves for free, the burial society agreed to give them in-ground burials at Har Hamenuchot for NIS 50,000 each — NIS 40,000 for the plot and NIS 10,000 for the burial.

The Sephardi burial society said it went out of its way to help the families. “We buried them without finalizing the figures,” said burial society member Avraham Gilo. “The price in this section for foreigners is around NIS 90,000, we will ask for 50%, and maybe even less. But in the meantime we buried them without asking for the money; they deserve it, they were murdered because they are Jews.”

An illustrative photo of a vertical part of the Yarkon cemetery outside Petah Tikva. (Photo credit: AP/Dan Balilty)

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.

The four victims of the Paris Hyper Cacher attack, from left to right: Yoav Hattab, Yohan Cohen, Francois-Michel Saada, Philippe Braham. (photo credit: Courtesy)

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 cemetery which began shortly after noon.

AFP and Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.