Reuven Shmerling
Reuven ShmerlingFacebook of Elkana local council

The judges of the Central District Court in Lod issued life sentences for Yusef Kamil and Muhammad Abu Alrov, who were convicted of the murder of Reuven Shmerling on the eve of Sukkot in Kafr Qasim.

In addition, the judges ruled that each of the murderers would pay Reuven Schmerling's family compensation amounting to 258,000 shekels.

Reuven's widow, Chana Shmerling, wrote to the judges a letter that she read in court: "My beloved partner, the man of grace and joy, man of prayer and action, will not return."

"The terrorists, Palestinians between the ages of 19 and 20, entered Israel in order to murder a Jew brutally solely because he was a Jew! Israeli law determines that they deserve life sentences, and I wonder: Really? And in what conditions? After all, the gloomy reality is known to all of us: As time passes, the president will limit their imprisonment, and when they are released, they will be forty, still young, and all their lives ahead of them. And us? For us precious life has been cut short, has collapsed, and will not return again.”

Reuven left four children - Shay Shmerling (36), Yonit Tsafrir (44), Idit Betzer (46) Shiri Brand (47) - and 19 grandchildren.