David Friedman drops out of illegal outpost memorial for slain US teen

US Ambassador David Friedman cancels an appearance at a memorial ceremony in memory of slain American teen Ezra Schwartz following a report highlighting that it will be taking place at an illegal outpost.

Friedman had accepted an invitation from Efrat’s Orot Yehuda Yeshiva, which is organizing the ceremony next Tuesday at the Oz Vegaon nature preserve in the Gush Etzion bloc.

Schwartz, 18, an American yeshiva student from Sharon, Massachusetts, was shot to death by a Palestinian terrorist in November 2015 while on his way to volunteer clearing the new camping grounds at Oz Vegaon.

A spokesman for Orot Yehuda told The Times of Israel that Friedman’s office did not provide a reason for the cancellation, but it came less than 24 hours after an Israel Hayom report highlighting the ceremony’s planned location.

Oz Vegaon was founded weeks after the June 12, 2014, disappearance of Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaer. The three teens had inadvertently hitched a ride from a bus stop at the Alon Shvut Junction in Gush Etzion with terrorists from a Hamas cell. Their fate was unknown for almost three weeks — until their bodies were found and it emerged that they had been killed hours after the kidnapping.

Three families now live in caravans at Oz Vegaon, which was a neglected forest filled with garbage before it was converted into a nature reserve by the Women in Green group.

—  Jacob Magid