Hundreds gather in Arab town of Abu Ghosh to bury Youssef Ottman

Several hundred mourners attend the funeral of Youssef Ottman, who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist while guarding the entrance to the nearby West Bank settlement of Har Adar this morning.

The ceremony in the small Arab town of Abu Ghosh was attended by a number of border policemen who knew Ottman and worked with him in Har Adar.

The ceremony was conducted in Arabic and English by Abu Ghosh Mayor Issa Jaber.

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev spoke at the funeral, praising Ottman as a protector of lives and calling the Palestinian who killed him was a taker of lives.

“Two men went to work this morning. One for life, one to save lives, and one for death, who went to take life away,” she said.

“We have no tolerance for people who take part in cowardly terror attacks,” she added, noting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the house of the attacker would be demolished.

Regev noted Ottman had been a combat soldier, and said he would have won “a fair fight.” But the terrorist, she said, had taken advantage of the fact that Ottman knew him, and was able to get up close before drawing his gun and killing him.

“They must choose: terror or making a livelihood,” Regev said of the Palestinians.

Opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union), also at the funeral, called Abu Ghosh “a model of peace,” noting Jews, Christians and Muslims all live peacefully in the small town and its environs.

— Dov Lieber