Yossi Tzur, a member of the "Choosing Life Forum" and the father of Assaf, who was murdered in a bombing attack on bus line 37 in Haifa in 2003, joined a group of members of the Forum who visited the Knesset, to demand that MKs legislate a law that would allow terrorists who have been released from prison to be ordered to stay away from the residences of the victims.
Tzur told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News that recently, he saw the terrorist who stabbed Moriah Cohen in eastern Jerusalem, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, had been released to the same neighborhood where Cohen lives.
“We are ourselves pursuing the terrorist who is responsible for the attack on Haifa’s bus line 37, who murdered my son. He was released from prison approximately a year ago and we fear that he will return to Haifa,” he said.
In light of the recent wave of releases, and with more expected in the future due to the number of hostages still in Gaza, he stressed, “The Knesset must be ready to pass a law that will allow us, the victims, to request their removal from our area. It is unreasonable that a terrorist will return to live near the victims of his crimes.”
Tzur recalled how he has in the past stated that should he meet the terrorist who killed his son, there were only two options as to what would happen next time either he would tear the terrorist apart, or drop dead of a heart attack. “We demand that this law be passed and that we be in control and not need favors from anyone, that we can demand that they be distanced from us. This is vital for our psychological health,” he explained.
Regarding the question as to where the terrorists should be distanced to, Tzur said that for the moment, they should be distanced from the victims of the attack. “We have worked hard on a law that passed in March 2023 a majority of 94 members of Knesset, which states that terrorists who were released and received funds from the PA in exchange for act of terror can have their Israeli citizenship revoked and be expelled from the country. To our great disappointment, this law has been applied zero times,” he said.
“Israel does not know how to apply this law. There are debates between different government ministries and security forces, the law has not been applied. Until that problem has been resolved we request that the terrorists be distanced from the victim, in a similar manner to the law regarding sexual offenders. If I live in Haifa, the terrorists should not be allowed to enter Haifa. We need this so that the families can live in peace following the tragedy that struck them.”
Regarding the prisoner exchange deal itself, Tzur noted that the Forum fought the Schalit deal on the grounds that the price was exaggeratedly high and their current position is, “We told you so. Everyone agrees that it was a terrible deal, and possibly even what brought back Yahya Sinwar and the current situation. This time, possibly because of the children, infants, women, and the elderly, and the rumors of terrible things that were done to the young women taken hostage, we have not protested. We do not agree with what they are doing, but we do not actively oppose it.”
“We need to see where this is going, because until now the respites in exchange for releasing only women and children were vaguely reasonable, even though releasing any terrorist is terrible. We need to see what we will do in the next stage. The terrible idea of 'everyone for everyone,' in which we will release thousands of terrorists - including those who have murdered dozens of Israelis - is a completely different story and we need to prepare for it in a completely different manner.”