Bereaved parent to PM: Oppose release of Naharayim killer
Miri Meiri, whose daughter was shot dead along with six other schoolgirls in 1997, says protest planned outside Jordan envoy's home against petition to free murderer. Jordanian sources: No chance of pardon
"I expect the government to act against the murderer's release," said Miri Meiri, the mother of 13-year-old Ya'ala, who was killed in 1997 along with six other Israeli schoolgirls from Beit Shemesh by a Jordanian soldier during a fieldtrip in Naharayim, on the border between Israel and Jordan.
After learning that an overwhelming 110 members of the Jordanian House of Representatives signed a petition demanding a pardon for Ahmad Musa Mustafa Daqamseh, Meiri wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying "I wish to present our pain to you."
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Speaking of her decision to turn to Netanyahu, Meiri said, "I know him; he invited me to take part in King Hussein's funeral. He also visited the school (which the murdered girls attended) last Memorial Day. I hope he will act and remember that he represents us, not any other nation.
Ya'ala (right) with friends shortly before shooting (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
"I want him to hear about my pain, now that I have to deal with the possible release of the murderer," the bereaved mother said.
"I am helpless. I don't know what's going on. I buried my child, and now I'm supposed to deal with this. We had a very difficult weekend. We didn’t know who to turn to."
Meiri said residents of Beit Shemesh were planning to demonstrate outside the Jordanian ambassador's home on the eve of Memorial Day. "This killer should have gotten seven life sentences. He was a soldier and our daughters were students," she said.
The petition signed by the Jordanian lawmakers is expected to be submitted to the parliament speaker in order to advance the release of Daqamseh, who was sentenced to life in prison. However, Jordanian sources who are familiar with the initiative told Ynet there is no chance the pardon request will be granted because, as one them stated, "the king is at the head of the pardoning process."
The Jordanian sources said the petition was part of a new trend in which issues related to Jordanian detainees are put on the agenda. They noted that Jordan's ambassador to Israel attended a memorial service for the schoolgirls in Naharayim this year.
"The ambassador was invited by the Foreign Ministry and the bereaved parents, who still remember that King Hussein visited them to offer his condolences after the massacre," one of the sources told Ynet.
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