The attack that shook Haifa • 19 years have passed and the pain has not diminished

17 dead, 9 of them school students • 19 years since the Line 37 attack

This coming Saturday will mark 19 years since the attack on Route 37 that rocked Haifa.

On Wednesday, 5/3/2003, a suicide bomber blew up a bus of route 37 at the entrance to the Carmelia neighborhood in Haifa. 17 of the bus passengers were killed. Nine of the dead were schoolchildren who were on their way home from the school day.

The people of Haifa remember very well the enormous shock and shock that hit them when word of this attack became known. Students from a number of schools in the city were murdered there, their friends remember the rift with when it became clear to them that they had lost a classmate.

A day after the attack, those who helped the terrorist reach Haifa and commit the terrible act were arrested.

commemoration and union of forces

In the years that have passed since then, the parents of the young people have dealt a lot with the memorialization of their children, and in addition to that, they joined forces and invested a lot of effort to prevent a situation in which those responsible for the attack went free.

walking among the dead

The father of the late Assaf Tzur, Yossi, wrote a few words on Facebook, as he usually does every year, when the date of his son's memorial service approaches:

"This coming Friday, the fourth of March, will be the nineteenth anniversary of the attack on Bus 37 in Haifa. Seventeen Israelis were murdered in the attack, nine of them schoolchildren who were on their way home. The attack was on Wednesday, and Thursday was a day of funerals, because in Haifa there is a plot In which only the victims of terrorism are buried, it was necessary to coordinate the hours. Thus, from morning to evening, there were funerals one after the other.

The most humane and personal description of this day was given in the article "Walking Among the Dead", a must read for anyone who wants to understand how and what happened that day. In addition, a segment from Channel 2 news from the evening of Thursday, March 2003, 15. In the news, XNUMX people were reported murdered, Anatoly Biryukov and Moran Shushan later died of their wounds.

This week we will be there again, remembering our loved ones. Family Family and its friends and acquaintances. from morning to evening. to remember and not to forget".

Remembering, hurting and fighting

In the last few weeks, Yossi, Ron Kerman, Tal's father, and Yossi Mandelevich, Yuval's father, went into battle, because in exactly one year, the last terrorist who was involved in the attack and is still in prison should be released. Yossi's greatest fear is that the terrorist who helped the terrorist who blew up the bus will be released and return to live in Haifa. It is hard for him to imagine a situation where he is walking around one of the malls in the city and suddenly that terrorist appears in front of him, "making a living" and spending time in the mall like any other person.

"In the attack on Route 37, there were several terrorists who helped carry out the attack. In the Shalit transaction, 3 terrorists were released. One of them was released to Gaza and two abroad. We the fathers, demonstrated, spoke and led the protest against the Gilad Shalit deal. We started and led the counter campaign. Everyone knows how it ends. Gilad Shalit was released and about 1,000 terrorists were released.

One of the terrorists involved in the attack remains in prison. There was one family of three brothers, who together planned the attack, one of the three brothers was the driver who drove the terrorist from Jerusalem to Haifa."

We refused a plea deal

"The squad was from Hebron, the terrorist was from Hebron, and so were all the terrorists who were released in the Shalit deal. There was a family of 3 brothers, who moved from Hebron to East Jerusalem and received blue identity cards. One of them drove the terrorist from Jerusalem to Haifa. The day after he resisted arrest and was killed. His two brothers were caught in Haifa. One of them was a minor, he went to prison and was released after 8 years. Today he is a truck driver and lives in Haifa. The third brother participated in intelligence and planning. He actually received a call from his driver brother, and knew that there was going to be an attack that day in the city. He was sentenced to 20 years They were going to make a plea deal with him and we prevented it.

Should be released in another year

He should be released a year from now. Over the years we waged a long struggle to deny him a blue ID card. Two years ago the former Minister of the Interior, Aryeh Deri, with the approval of the former Attorney General Avichai Mandelbit, was deprived of his blue identity card. This does not prevent him from returning to live in Haifa in a year. We are not ready for that to happen! It is not a simple precedent process. We wrote a bill that would allow us to keep him away from Haifa. The lawyer who helps us free of charge (pro bono) is attorney Eyal Flatek. He helps us both in the matter of promoting the bill and in representing us in court."

A fight for our sanity

"It's a legal fight, and in another sense it's simply a fight for our sanity and health. If I'm walking in the Haifa Mall or the Grand Canyon tomorrow and I see him in the mall in front of me, do I attack him and kill him? Or do I lose consciousness and be hospitalized? I can't think that I'll see him Molly enjoys life.

Out of 17 people who were murdered in this terrible attack, 15 of the families of the murdered are from Haifa. You have to think about all the relatives who lost the most precious thing to them and how they will feel if this person returns to Haifa. If you take the circles around the murdered, it is hundreds of people."

Keep the abuser away from the victim

"There is a law from a few years ago, called the law on removing a sex offender from the victim. The Knesset recognized that it is impossible, in some cases, to let the offender return to the victim's place of residence. Everyone understands with simple logic that if someone rapes their neighbor and returns to live there after 5-6 years and he is a neighbor of the one he raped, this is an impossible situation. The law should be extended to our case as well.

The law is not personal, there are many such cases. We very much hope that there will be a response in the Knesset and the court and we will be able to continue living in Haifa peacefully, without further damage being caused to us."