Monument to rabbi killed in West Bank terror shooting vandalized

A monument erected in memory of a rabbi killed in a West Bank terror shooting was found vandalized Thursday morning.

Raziel Shevach, a father of six, was murdered in a drive-by shooting in January 2018 as he traveled down a road outside the illegal outpost Havat Gilad, where he lived.

Images from outside Havat Gilad Thursday showed the monument defaced with red spray paint, which vandals apparently daubed on it overnight.

Over a dozen Havat Gilad residents held a prayer service at the site Thursday morning in honor of Shevach.

In an emotional Facebook post, Shevach’s widow Yael expressed the level of hurt that the vandalism had caused.

“I did not want it to affect me. I did not plan for it to make a knot in my stomach like that. I wanted it to pass me by so I could continue my holiday and the preparations for the holiday as if it did not concern me,” she wrote.

“But that did not happen. It turned my stomach, it disrupted my day, it brought me back there again, to that night, to the great and thick darkness that sank over me four and a half years ago.”

Rabbi Raziel Shevach with his family, in an undated photo. (Courtesy of the family)

She went on: “It’s true. We will not let them win, we will not terror subdue us. But yes, they beat me. Here’s a fact. I’m broken, shattered, bleeding drops of red spray bought for a few bucks. I did not want to feel defeated. I do not want to give them this pleasure. But still, this is my feeling.

“But what they did not take into account is that I already know what happens to my heart after it is broken. I learned to use this pain as a force to push me forward, high and up. We have learned to leverage this blood and dance over it and turn it into a big victory image, one that will show them and everyone that maybe they hurt us, but we are here, and maybe we fell, and maybe we were murdered. But we’re still here. Forever.”