Terror victim recalled as comedian and model husband

Friends and family remembered Evyatar Borowsky as a joker, a hardy settler, and a devoted husband and father Tuesday evening as they gathered to bury the 31-year-old victim of a terror attack at a West Bank junction earlier in the day.

“He was a wonderful son, a comedian, a father and a model husband,” Baruch Borowsky, Evyatar’s father, told Channel 2. “His life was cut short.”

Borowsky was killed while waiting for a ride at Tapuah Junction near the settlement of Yitzhar, where he lived. A Palestinian from Tulkarem stabbed him to death. The killing was the first fatal terror attack in the West Bank in over a year.

Thousands gathered Tuesday afternoon to bury Borowsky, a father of five, in Kfar Hasidim, where he was born.

Evyatar Borowsky, who was stabbed to death on Tuesday at Tapuah Junction. (photo credit: Courtesy of the Borowsky family)

He moved with his family to the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar five years ago and recently purchased a home at the site. He worked as an actor with the Erel theater group and performed in amateur theaters across the country. Borowsky is survived by his wife, Tzofiya, and his five children.

“He was a real settler,” Borowsky’s mother, Chaya, told Channel 2. “He bought a house in Yitzhar just a few months ago, but we were afraid to go there. Any time something would happen, we would call him to find out more details.”

The funeral was attended by Housing Minister Uri Ariel, Gershon Mesika of the Samaria Regional Council, and Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, among others.

“Whoever disregards stone throwers or calls throwing stones a ‘prank’ is an accomplice to murder,” Mesika said at the funeral. “I call on the state of Israel to bring checkpoints back to the West Bank.”

Earlier in the day, settlers from Yitzhar carried out several revenge attacks against Palestinians, throwing stones and burning olive trees.

Borowsky’s mother, however, said the actions were misguided.

“Revenge will not help,” Chaya Borowsky said. “He will not come back. What, kill more Arabs, then another Jew? It is not the solution.”

Baruch Borowsky, on the other hand, said he actually wished he could avenge his son.

“I do not agree with ‘Price Tag’ [revenge-style] operations,” he said. “But I do want to take revenge on the killer. How, I do not know. Nor am I thinking about it, but the feeling exists.”

Borowsky’s friends expressed shock and horror over his murder. “He was a talented man, who always laughed about everything,” Oshri Maimon, the director of the Erel theater group of which Borowsky was a member, told Ynet Tuesday. “It was important for him as an intellectual to take part in cultural and artistic composition, despite the fact that most actors do not belong to the settlement community,” he said.

“I remember Evyatar was always welcoming, always with a smile,” Borowsky’s high school rabbi, Nesiel Ben-Tov, told Ynet. “He was a student with lots of good traits and love for others. He never did anything problematic.”

Following the deadly attack, the Israeli Almagor Terror Victims Association called on Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to restate Israel’s defense policy in the West Bank and issue explicit orders to open fire on rock-throwing Palestinians.

“The Central Command is responding to a wholesale ‘intifada’ by the Palestinians with the tools of low-intensity warfare,” Almagor CEO Meir Indor stated. “The terrorist was able to get to, and murder, Evyatar Borowsky at an Egged bus stop solely because of soldiers’ orders to ‘go easy’ on rock throwers and let them move around freely.”