Fogel Family
Fogel FamilyA7 Staff

Elihai Ben-Yishai, whose sister Ruti, brother-in-law Ehud and young niece and nephews were brutally murdered by Palestinian Authority terrorists, issued an impassioned call Tuesday for the killers to face the death penalty.

In a piece published by Yediot Aharonot, Ben-Yishai wrote, “A direct line connects the Nazi persecutor to the murderers from Awarta. Those same animals would have carried out the same acts if the family in question were from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa or Ramle."

“They would have entered any Jewish home and done what they did without a single pang of conscience,” he stated. The murderers of the Fogel family have declared that they feel no guilt, and one was recently seen smiling his way through a court session."

Israeli law currently allows for the death penalty only for Nazi war criminals. But, Ben-Yishai argued, “Whether it’s ‘Allahu Akbar’ or the Final Solution – there’s no real difference.”

As for the question of whether the death penalty would deter future murders, Ben-Yishai declared that the answer is irrelevant. “The verdict should not be determined by that, but by a single truth: whether these murderers committed an act that has made them unworthy to continue living. And the answer to that is clear to all.”

The murderers in question, cousins Hakim and Amjad Awad, entered the Fogel family’s home in Itamar late Friday night, March 11, and stabbed to death the children Yoav, 11, and Elad, 4, then murdered their parents Ehud and Ruti. The two killers began to leave, but turned back to murder three-month-old baby Hadas when they heard her crying.

Two other children remained asleep throughout the attack and escaped the killers’ notice, and a third survived because she was away at a Bnei Akiva activity at the time.

While senior Israeli figures, including Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and top IDF brass, have called to consider the death penalty in the murders, chances that the death penalty will be handed down are considered very slim.