Yehuda Lipschitz
Photo reproduction
Don't release my son's murderers, bereaved mother says
Mother of reservist killed by terrorist infiltrators condemns prime minister's decision to allow the perpetrators to serve out rest of prison sentence in Jordanian jail
"Don't transfer the prisoners who murdered my son," begged Nili Lipschitz, mother of the late Maj (res) Yehuda Lipschitz. She was reacting to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's support of a proposed transfer of Yehuda's murderers to Jordanian prisons for their rest of their sentence.
Yehuda was killed in 1990, at age 27, during reserves service. Even back then, the state didn't respond appropriately, the bereaved mother said.
"They sent them to the Jordanian border and told them it was quiet, which was untrue. They were sent without enough training. It was the intifada…The border was hot and there were infiltration attempts," she recounted.
Mr. and Mrs. Lipschitz (Photo: Ronen Boidek)
Yehuda served as a reserves officer in the Engineering Corps. During one stint in the reserves, he was patrolling with a scout and noticed a breach in the border fence. The two followed the trail and confronted a terrorist cell.
Following exchanges of fire, Lipschitz was wounded in the head. The leader of the cell was killed, and the rest of the cell members were arrested.
Later, it was discovered that the terrorists had planned to carry out an attack in Jerusalem.
Wednesday, during a press conference in Ankara, Olmert said he supports the transfer of the prisoners to Jordan. "The king appealed to me," the prime minister said. "The king is a friend of mine…It's not a release, but rather a change of prisons. I will support this."
"The state needs to realize that by releasing the terrorists to Jordan, it's sending a message to its soldiers that they should not go to battle or go to reserves. Few soldiers go to combat units the way Yehuda did as it is, and this is the message they'll receive? That their murderers will go free?" Mrs. Lipschitz raged.
"We must not release them no matter what. They need to stay in prison until they die. If there's no death penalty in Israel, it's the least that can be done."
"Why does a gesture to the King of Jordan need to come at the expense of our family? All my sons served in the army and Yehuda was killed in service. And what do I get now? A slap in the face from the prime minister and the state," she raged.
