MK Oren Hazan confronts families of terrorists: 'Your son is a dog'
MK Oren Hazan and activists working for the return of prisoners of war and missing persons stopped a bus on its way to Nafha Prison to prevent families of terrorists from visiting.
By ARIK BENDERUpdated: DECEMBER 25, 2017 23:44MK Oren Hazan confronts families of terrorists, December 25, 2017 (Facebook/Oren Hazan)
MK Oren Hazan confronted families of terrorists from the Gaza Strip who came to visit their imprisoned sons in the south, shouting abuse at them as they rode a bus taking them to the prison.The families on the bus were on their way to Nafha prison, near Sde Boker, from the Gaza Strip in a convoy escorted by the Red Cross.Hazan boarded the bus at the Gaza border with video crews in tow. He said on Twitter he told the relatives that the prisoners were “terrorists who belong in the ground”. In a video clip on social media, he shouted at one prisoner’s mother that her son was an “insect” and a “dog.”“An insect?” she yelled back, “My son is the best of men. A dog is whoever calls him a dog.”Hazan and activists from the Task Force for the Release of Prisoners and Missing Persons held up a bus carrying family members from Gaza to the prison. Hazan boarded the bus and confronted the passengers, calling their sons “dogs” and “sons of death.”He said he will see to it that the Gazans will not be able to see their sons as long as Hamas does not allow relatives of the Israeli prisoners of war and missing persons held in Gaza to obtain information about their fate.He turned to the mother of an imprisoned terrorist and asked, “Who did you come to visit? What did your son do?” She replied: “He did not do anything.”Hazan responded: “He did not do anything, did he distribute flowers? Your son is a dog. He’s a dog. You come to visit the scum who are sitting here in prison, whom you see as your family members.”The woman started to respond to which Hazan said, “Listen, I’ll make sure you cannot visit here anymore and we’ll do everything so you will not get in. You are not welcome here, you have to understand well, you raised your son to murder.”Then he turned to other passengers on the bus and said: “I want to tell you all, your friends in Gaza are holding our brothers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul and Avera Mengistu, and if you do not bring this message home that we want to get our children back you will not come here anymore. If you continue here you will not see them alive.”
IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul were killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and it is believed that Hamas holds their bodies. Avera Mengistu is an Israeli citizen who is also believed to be held by Hamas since he was last seen on the Gaza border in 2014.The Red Cross said on Monday that Israel has a duty to guarantee the safety and dignity of Palestinian families visiting prisoners. It said it “takes very seriously what happened today (Monday).”A Hamas spokesman, who responded to the actions of Hazan, said: “The occupation is being conducted against the prisoners’ families and this requires a position from humanitarian and human rights institutions to protect the prisoners and their families from harm. This behavior proves that the Israeli occupation has no humane feelings.”Reuters contributed to this article.