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Photo: Family album
Aiia Maasarwe
Photo: Family album

Israeli student killed in Australia laid to rest in hometown

Thousands of mourners gather outside family home of 21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe in the predominantly Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, week after she was brutally attacked and killed in Melbourne.

A female Israeli student who was killed in Australia last week, sparking a nationwide uproar, was laid to rest Wednesday in her hometown in northern Israel.

 

 

Thousands of mourners gathered outside the family home of Aiia Maasarwe for a traditional Muslim burial in the predominantly Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye.

 

Aiia Maasarwe (Photo: Courtesy of the family) (Photo: Family album)
Aiia Maasarwe (Photo: Courtesy of the family)

 

Friends and neighbors carried flowers and Arabic signs, reading "Your beautiful soul will not be forgotten." They huddled and prayed as her family lowered Maasarwe's coffin into the ground.

 

Aiia Maasarwe's funeral in the Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, January 23, 2019    (צילום: שמיר אלבז)

Aiia Maasarwe's funeral in the Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, January 23, 2019

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"She was a special girl from all aspects, it's very hard to describe her in words," said her uncle, Jamil Maasarwe.

 

Maasarwe, a 21-year-old exchange student at La Trobe University in Melbourne, was coming home from a night out in a nearby suburb when she was raped and killed in what appears to have been a random attack.

 

She was speaking to her younger sister in Israel via FaceTime when the assault occurred, police said.

 

Family and relatives at Aiia Maasarwe's funeral, January 23, 2019
Family and relatives at Aiia Maasarwe's funeral, January 23, 2019

 

Her death quickly captured international attention, sparking demonstrations in Australia demanding an end to violence against women and shocking her tight-knit hometown.

 

Vigils and memorials honoring Maasarwe's life and raising awareness about gender-related killings have drawn thousands of supporters in Australia and Israel over the past week.

 

Her family said Maasarwe had decided to study in Australia because of its reputation for safety.

 

"I mean, that's unbelievable, how could something like this happen to someone like Aiia," said a cousin, Baker Maasarwe.

 

Maasarwe's father flew to Australia to identify his daughter's body and bring it home after a passer-by stumbled upon it near the tram station where she was killed.

 

Cody Herrmann, 20, the suspect arrested for Maasarwe's murder, has appeared in an Australian court on Saturday charged with murder and rape.

 

Herrmann hung his head as he sat in the dock and stood only to hear the charges against him read. He was not required to enter pleas.

 

A murder conviction carries a potential maximum penalty of life imprisonment and rape carries a potential maximum of 25 years.

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.23.19, 16:56
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