Journalist and publicist Yoav Sorek spoke about his son Dvir, who was murdered on Wednesday night in a stabbing attack near Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion, on Friday morning.
Sorek approached the journalists outside his family home in Ofra to share his feelings: "I had a few minutes and I looked at Facebook. I saw that they had written nice things about Dvir. Streams of people are coming to our home who are telling us stories, adding to what we know about Dvir."
"I'm glad that ministers and Knesset members came yesterday. I didn't want there to be political speeches at the funeral. Unfortunately, it's not a novelty when Jews are killed by terrorists. I didn't receive official results of the investigation," Sorek added.
"I hope it is as I imagine it, that he was attacked from behind and didn't manage to see the face of the evil [terrorist], and went up to Heaven in purity. His rabbis told us that he recently has felt uplifted - he's been evolving and was happy with what he was doing. I hope that from this good place he went straight to Heaven."
Sorek called for the settlement of Ofra to be normalized, but not because of the murder, but because it is the right thing to do. "I want to say something. There were those who talked about the issues of normalizing settlements and appropriate Zionist responses. Personally, I don't like this discourse. The victims don't need to lead. This place should be normalized but not because someone died. We're not correct because we suffered. When Dvir was born 18 years ago, and we celebrated his circumcision in the courtyard outside our home, [Ofra] wasn't normalized and it's still not normalized. There is no reason for this to happen because of the tragedy. The tragedy is not a lever."
When Sorek was questioned about the IDF's efforts to apprehend the terrorist, he said: "Will the IDF's long hand achieve anything? I've alway exploded when I hear others say this. The IDF's long hand prevents many [attacks] but after it happens and in exchange for it, they release [the terrorists] in some type of deal. In my eyes, [the IDF's efforts] is not comforting and is unimportant to me."