Hundreds attend funeral for Tel Aviv boy killed by suspected drunk driver

Hundreds of people attended a funeral Sunday for a 13-year-old boy who was killed when he was hit by a suspected drunk driver while standing on a sidewalk in Tel Aviv on Friday.

Police named him as Eylon Shalev-Amsalem on Saturday after his parents returned to Israel. They were vacationing in Thailand and the teen had asked if he could stay behind to spend summer vacation with friends.

Eli Bar Zakai, the driver of the car that killed Shalev-Amsalem, was remanded for a further three days by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court. Police accuse him of being drunk at the time of the accident, a charge his lawyer denied.

“I refuse to leave you,” his mother, Dikla Shalev-Amsalem, eulogized at the funeral. “Wherever I go, you will always be my guardian angel.”

She continued by saying that she had found out she was pregnant with Eylon during a trip to the Sinai to celebrate his father’s 36th birthday.

“I love you, I want you with me, my beloved flower, my dear, the boy who was filled with love, my heart is bursting,” she continued. “I am falling to pieces and have to put myself back together again. You are a child of life, not a child of death.”

His father, Kobi Shalev-Amsalem, described him as grownup and smart, and said he could bring people to tears with his wit.

“I called you my prince,” he said. “A cute young man who tested boundaries and new places out of curiosity.”

Among those attending the funeral, held at the cemetery in Kiryat Shaul in Tel Aviv, was Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, a friend of the family.

Messages from friends sent to Shalev-Amsalem after they heard of the accident were read out at the funeral.

“Maybe you’ll read it from Heaven,” wrote one of his friends. “I hope it is good for you.”

Another friend left a message on his Instagram page.

“I hope you will find rest up there. It is difficult for everyone here without you,” he wrote. “This life is not fair. I love you, and I’m flooded with tears.”

Eylon Shalev-Amsalem and another friend had been waiting to cross the street at the intersection of Ibn Gabirol and Shai Agnon streets in northern Tel Aviv when a driver traveling at high speed lost control of his vehicle, mounted the sidewalk and plowed into the two boys.

Shalev-Amsalem was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, where doctors declared him dead two hours after his arrival. The second teen suffered moderate injuries to his upper body and is currently recovering in Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital.

Police at the scene of the accident had Bar Zakai take a breathalyzer test, which found that the 23-year-old Jerusalem resident was under the influence of alcohol.

The test marked his blood alcohol level at 600 micrograms per liter, more than ten times the amount allowed for a driver under the age of 24.

Since the test that was performed is often not enough to hold up in court, police asked to perform an additional, more accurate blood test, but Bar Zakai refused. According to Israeli law, such refusal means that the suspect is considered to legally have been drunk.

Bar Zakai’s lawyer denied he was drunk and said he had lost control of the vehicle because he was driving too fast and the road was wet.