Ella, the widow of Gideon Peri, who was murdered in a terrorist attack in an industrial zone in Samaria last week, spoke about the character of her husband and his continual message to the world.
"He always said: 'We don't have to be afraid in our own country'", Ella told Ynet. "He said that if anyone should be afraid it was them. He had no problem working with Palestinians, and you won't believe how much he cared about their work and conditions."
"But he always said, 'As long as they're afraid of us, not us of them.' I don't have to get in my car and be afraid, and I don't have to lock my doors in case a terrorist gets in.. Not here, not in the central region, not in the north, not in the south. It's not supposed to happen."
She shared the children's coping during the seven days of mourning. "With their friends they're fine. When they go to sleep they're less fine. What can you say to children who have lost their father in such a brutal way by people who are interested in nothing? Nothing. Neither right nor left. They just want to kill Jews. It was a man who knew him. How can you tell a child, 'Your father died because he was a Jew'?".
She was asked in an interview whether Gideon had known the Palestinian laborers at the factory. "He regularly said 'I never turn my back to them. No matter how loyal the worker is, tomorrow or the day after he can decide to turn on me and bash me over the head with a hammer.' In those words, exactly. And I have no way of explaining the fact that on that day, the terrorist was walking behind him, and Gideon was walking in front of him."
Peri, 38, of Kedumim, left behind a wife and three children, parents and siblings. Peri served as a manager at the industrial zone where he was murdered.
The attack took place between two factories in an open area. Peri was escorting workers from one factory to the other. As they were walking, the terrorist attacked him with a hammer, critically injuring him. He was rushed to Beilinson Hospital, where doctors fought to save his life, but eventually had to pronounce him dead.
The following day, IDF forces operated in the village of Beqa in the Efraim Brigade and mapped the home of the terrorist who murdered Gideon.