“Meet Mai Afana’s mother, Khuloud, who is fighting to be able to bury her daughter & begin her healing,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) tweeted on Saturday, explaining: “Mai was a mother, loving daughter & successful Ph.D. student. She was killed by the Israeli government last June. Israel won’t release her body to her family.”
To which former Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) responded: “You forgot the part where she attempted to murder a bunch of Israelis. Minor detail, for you, we know…”
According to the IDF, Mai Yousef Afanah, 29, from Abu Dis, on June 16 attempted to run over and stab Israeli soldiers near the village of Hizma, north of Jerusalem, and was shot dead at the scene. She first tried to ram her car into a group of soldiers who were guarding engineering work in the area. Moments later, Afanah left her car wielding a knife and ran towards the soldiers. The soldiers shot at her, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I am sharing Mai’s story because I began to only learn last year of this inhumane practice by the Israeli govt. Without proof, they make claims, and all to just continue to dehumanize Palestinians even after they have died. We must stand against this form of collective violence,” Tlaib tweeted, making her claims without proof.
“The Palestinian people deserve the same dignity as any other human being. To deny the right to see their loved ones for a modicum of closure is another form of painful violence from the U.S. sponsored, Israeli arsenal. Mai’s dead body is one of hundreds being held,” Tlaib added.
Back on September 2, 2020, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s political-security cabinet endorsed Gantz’s proposal that Israel would no longer allow the return of terrorist bodies if said terrorists wounded, killed, or carried weapons, even if they were not affiliated with Hamas. The decision applied to terrorists who came from Judea and Samaria as well as terrorists from the Gaza Strip. In the event of a lone operator, a specific decision would be made in coordination between the military and political echelons.
Gantz hinted that he was hoping the move would help, among other things, to return the prisoners and missing soldiers from Gaza. “Our refusing to return the bodies of terrorists is part of our commitment to maintaining the security of Israeli citizens, and of course to bring the boys home,” he said, adding, “I suggest to our enemies that they understand and internalize the message well.”
Perhaps Congresswoman Tlaib could convince her friends in Hamas to do something about the “dignity as any other human being” of Israel’s two missing in action soldiers, as well as its two living citizens who are detained by Hamas. It would go a long way to get the release of the body of the young woman who lost her mind and tried to murder soldiers.
By the way, Jewish Press contributor Elder of Ziyon dug up a long list of online content by the late ramming girl that’s quite shocking (Woman who tried to run over, stab soldiers this morning was a terrorist fangirl). Someone should send the link to Rashida. For the sake of dignity, you know.
Tlaib also reminisced: “I still remember the Erekat family’s plea last year to release their loving son, Ahmed’s body. Here is his story. HRW and other human rights organizations have demanded an end to this disgusting practice, and the U.S. must join them in that demand.”
A day after Border Police officers shot dead a Palestinian man they said rammed his car into a checkpoint near the village of Abu Dis, police footage showed the man deliberately turning his vehicle as he waited in line and driving straight at the troops. One Border Police officer was hospitalized Erekat was shot dead by troops at the checkpoint near Abu Dis.
Did you watch the video? Do you understand why Erekat was shot by the officers?
Anti-Israel NGOs invested a lot in hiring Forensic Architecture to prepare a three-dimensional, digital reconstruction of the events at the checkpoint on that day, beginning at 3:53 PM, when Ahmad was shot, and ending two hours later, at 5:50 PM, with the removal of his body. The investigators were aided by photographs and video footage from the scene, eyewitness testimony, and the opinion of an American forensic expert specializing in collisions, injury biomechanics, and shooting reconstruction. The 18-minute video is narrated by Angela Davis (ah, the memories…).
It became a celebrated case against Israeli “careless brutality.” The only answer to that is: did you watch the video? Do you understand why Erekat was shot?