Police chief says grief for victims, attackers doesn’t compare

Israel’s head policeman drew a sharp distinction between bereaved families of slain Palestinian attackers and Israeli victims on Monday, reigniting a controversy over grief amid a five-month-old round of violence that has left some 200 people dead on both sides of the conflict.

The comments by Police chief Roni Alsheich seemed to be aimed at radio presenter Razi Barkai, who sparked outrage when he compared the grief of families of attackers and victims during an interview with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan earlier this month.

“There is a difference between our grief and their grief,” Alsheich said at an event for bereaved families in Eilat.

“It’s impossible not to tell the difference between the grief we see in your faces and the grief we’ve seen expressed by some of our neighbors in recent years,” he said.

“Our enemies chose to sanctify death, the message they preach is that life is meaningless and that pressing a button or pulling out a knife, you will be transported to a better world. This is the antithesis of Israeli values,” Alsheich said, without naming Barkai.

Barkai’s comments came amid a debate over whether Israeli should hold the bodies of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis.

Twenty-eight Israelis and three foreign nationals have been killed in a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence since October, during which nearly 170 Palestinians have also been killed, some two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.

Israel has held on to bodies of attackers until families agree to not hold funerals that can be turned into nationalist rallies, a controversial measure opposed by Arab-Israeli lawmakers and others.

Army Radio presenter Razi Barkai, photographed in March 2004 (Flash90)

“Imagine Israeli families, who are shamefully waiting, waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be returned,” Barkai said during a February 8 interview with Erdan. “Imagine from the families’ perspective.”

Outraged by his remarks, the parents of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, IDF soldiers killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, called the comparison inappropriate, and demanded Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon suspended Barkai pending an investigation into the incident.

Simcha Goldin, Hadar Goldin’s father, confronted Barkai on an Army Radio program later that day.

“We’re in a struggle to convince the world that there are huge differences between us and our enemies,” Goldin said in an emotional interview with Barkai. “What you said to the public security minister cannot be understood otherwise,” he said.

Barkai, who lost his own brother during his military service decades ago, tried to clarify that he was referring to the “feelings of the families” in the context of whether retaining Palestinian bodies would aggravate or calm the situation.

IDF soldiers Oron Shaul (left) and Hadar Goldin (right) (Flash90)

“The only comparison was between the feelings of the bereaved mother,” Barkai told Goldin. “From the point of view of the feelings of a bereaved Palestinian mother and a bereaved Jewish mother, I don’t think there’s a difference. If I hurt you, then I expressed myself unsuccessfully.”

Barkai’s airtime was initially cut by superiors in response to the affair, causing the veteran broadcaster, among the country’s most well-known, to consider stepping down, until his time was eventually restored.

Goldin and Shaul were killed in separate incidents during fighting in Gaza during the summer’s 50-day military campaign, and were both declared dead based on evidence the army acquired, but their bodies were never recovered by Israel.

Hamas is believed to be holding their bodies as bargaining chips to be used in future negotiations with Israel.

Sue Surkes and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.