Less than 48 hours after the slaughter of three Neve Tzuf (Halamish) residents by an Arab terrorist sent shockwaves across Israel, local youth have already begun a new building project to memorialize the victims of Friday’s attack.
Assaf Arzi, the youth organizer for Neve Tzuf spoke with Arutz Sheva Sunday about the efforts of local teens to build something constructive out of their shared pain.
Last Friday evening, an Arab terrorist armed with a knife broke into a home in Halamish and murdered three members of the Salomon family in cold blood. A fourth member of the Salomon family was wounded.
Since the Sabbath ended Saturday night, hundreds of residents have been busy setting up a caravan and tents on the edge of Halamish. Residents hope the outpost, tentatively named “Yad Ahi” (My Brother’s Hand) will be expanded into a full-fledged neighborhood of Halamish.
“We are a community that desires life,” said Arzi, “but we’ve been through a very difficult event. Unfortunately, we have experience [as a community] following [last year’s wave of] fires [by Arab arsonists], and the town emergency response team works 24-hours a day and knows how to respond [to emergency situations].”
In the face of the tragedy, said Arzi, residents have come together to build something in memory of the three victims of Friday’s attack.
“Here you see young people and residents of the town volunteering; we’re building a neighborhood. We are a community that desires life, and that is growing and developing. We’re bringing equipment, bringing caravans. We demand the basic level of security that every town should have.”
Arzi added that the very act of building Yad Ahi was a form of communal healing.
“The healing comes from doing [something constructive]. Right after Shabbat ended we started working. We’re building a neighborhood here in the name of the State of Israel and in the memory of our friends.”