Liberman at party meet attended by forum members
Liberman at party meet attended by forum membersHezki Baruch

Representatives of the "Choose Life" forum of bereaved families were hosted today at a Yisrael Beytenu party meeting.

The meeting dealt with promoting the terrorist death penalty bill the faction is sponsoring together with Choose Life forum members.

The Choose Life forum of bereaved families was established two years ago and includes more than 100 bereaved families, many from the last wave of terror attacks.

Among forum members are non-Jewish bereaved families such as that of Yosef Osman, who lost their son in a terror attack on Har Adar.

The family forum's goal is to promote "deterrence packages" against terrorists to prevent the next attack. The families demand the death penalty be extended to terrorists, which the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister agreed to advance, as well as cessation of terrorists' good living conditions in the prisons.

Devorah Gonen, one of the heads of the bereaved families forum, whose son was murdered in a terror attack, said at the start of the Yisrael Beytenu meeting: "Danny was murdered for one reason only: because he was a Jew. A model child, one of the best sons of this land. He loved the Land and was attached to it with all his soul. A man of truth, integrity, and especially a man of choices, each of which aimed to benefit society and life."

"We want to thank you, Minister of Defense, for inviting us. I'm sure it's not a simple task to commit before bereaved families, to Im Tirtzu and the entire Jewish people, to promote the final amendment to the death penalty for terrorists," added Gonen.

"I want to state and emphasize that no-one wants to promote a death sentence for terrorists for the sake of punishment, but to create a real deterrent, one that will convince the next murderer to abandon the act of terror and death. To prevent the next murder is all we ask," she said.

The only way to prevent the next murder, she said, is to pass a law that imposes the death penalty on terrorists. "A terrorist can not enter the home of an innocent family and murder a father, a son, and a daughter, or seriously injure the mother of the family and then be transferred to the Terrorists' Hotel in an Israeli prison. This approach paves the way for the next murder because it is not discouraging at all and some say it's even encouraging. We must not wait for the next murder, but do everything to prevent it. This is the meaning of the death sentence for terrorists, and I hope and expect that even before this legislation, the Defense Minister will seek to impose the punishment in its present form in the trial against the barbaric murderer who slaughtered the Solomon family in their home on a Friday night."

"The State of Israel is under constant terror attack and only the amazing capabilities of the security forces have prevented hundreds of serious attacks in the past year," said Matan Peleg, head of the Im Tirtzu Zionist campus movement.

"This fact proves that the terror industry is still active and the only way to curb it is by creating a real deterrent package including the death penalty for the terrorists, expulsion of terrorist's families to Gaza, demolition of their homes, and revocation of their prison rights. Then there will be a real chance to stop the murder industry. This is not revenge and not justice; it is a step aimed at convincing the potential terrorist to abandon the terror attack," Peleg added.