Terror victims group’s chief lashes out during ceremony

As the country marked the deaths of over 2,000 terror victims, the head of an organization for bereaved families struck out at the state for ignoring their needs and not paying their loved ones proper respect.

Speaking at the official state ceremony on Mount Herzl Monday, the head of the Terror Victim’s Association, Tzvika Pozis-Shahak, told the prime minister, president and other state leaders that his group lacked funding, resources or even a permanent building.

“We are not asking for kindness, but justice,” said Pozis-Shahak, who lost his teenager daughter Chen in a terror attack in Tel Aviv in 1996. “We are not asking for favors, only what we are due.”

Pozis-Shahak said the organization he heads has just five employees, who must provide support, rehabilitation, and compensation services to thousands of terror victims families.

“Our organization has fallen on hard times as it is required to function on weak support, and without resources,” he added and said that the attitude of the state to terror victims is one of shame, as though they represent a failure.

Pozis-Shahak also pleaded for the state to include terror victims in the national monument to the fallen it is building on Mount Herzl, which is currently slated to only honor those who died while serving in Israel’s security forces.

“Why is it that my daughter, who was killed by the enemy, doesn’t deserve to be commemorated at the national monument at Mount Herzl, whereas the off-duty soldier who was killed with her in the same attack is?” he asked.