About two weeks ago, a motorcyclist shot and killed Tuvia Ben Na'im, a 16-year-old boy from her room who had been ejected from multiple frames. The pistol bullets wounded those who, according to the police, were the targets of the assassination: Avi Biton, 51, and his son Yarin, 27, and also wounded Emmanuel Malakiev, 28, known criminals from Or Akiva.
"They threw him from institution to institution": Tuvia Benaim's father, the 16-year-old boy murdered in Gan Shmuel speaks for the first time// Shmuel Buchris
While many difficult questions float in the air, the visit to the mourning home revealed firsthand the great pain and cry of the family.
The simple house in Hadera is bustling with comfort. The mother walks around pale, tearing around herself and not knowing her soul because of her sorrow. Many comforters surround her, trying to support her, but she is left speechless. The father of the family is waiting for us, sitting with a crushed look on the low couch, his shirt torn, next to him sitting his children, and we hear very painful words from him that drain out between the bursts of crying.
Father Meir: "I say to parents, don't be afraid of anyone, don't be ashamed of anyone, fight for your children without shame."
Media coverage is foreign to him, but it is burning to convey a message to parents, educators, and elected officials. His crime is against his child, and he asks that this be where it stops. That it would be the last case.
"My message is to educators. I was fortunate to have boys, Torah scholars who sit on their teachings, who followed suit. And I had Tuvia Bezalel, who was a very good boy, but weak in studies. Educational institutions are not built to hold such a child. They need and must overcome themselves. This is the law of persons. Invest in children."
Do you blame the institutions for what happened to your son?
"Yes. If so many youth hadn't been thrown into the street, the situation wouldn't have been catastrophic. They may not be suitable for the institution. So what should be done? Transfer them to another adapted institution. Do not throw them away - until they receive a proper and optimal response.
"Tuvia was constantly thrown from institution to institution without blinking, without mercy. I would beg. "Why are you throwing it away?" A little pity. A bit of investment. True, he was naughty. But that's your job! Invest in it! Make efforts. Parents are torn, parents are suffering." The father breathes heavily. It is evident that talking is difficult for him.
The shooting incident at the Gan Shmuel junction in which Tuvia Benaim was murdered, photo: according to 27A
The targets for elimination in Gan Shmuel: Yarin Biton and Avi Biton, photo: Michel Dot Com
"If you can't educate, leave, don't mess with souls, look elsewhere. Go work in the market. If you don't know how to work with children, don't be there."
Do you think they knew about the danger waiting for him on the street?
"They don't care"
Did they ask for forgiveness? Repenting?
Because they are so opaque, they refer to Tuvia as someone who broke down and went down to the street. Which went down to the street?? My son Tuvia Bezalel in the grave!!" The father sobs and cries out. His voice broke.
I hear from the people at home that he is usually an introvert and this candor is uncharacteristic of him, but the father could not stop his piercing sorrow. Everyone in the room sobs as he continues in a shattered voice.
"What street? He's in the grave, he's in the grave, because you don't care! You think kids throw them into the street. If you had known that Dad sat here yesterday and said to me, 'Now I understand you. My son is walking the streets.' I blame the educators who threw him into the street, no less than the perpetrators who murdered him. If you hadn't thrown him into the street, he wouldn't have reached those places.
"Unfortunately, here, in the ultra-Orthodox Torah world, children are thrown freely into the street. ' Yes, he'll work out.' But who will pay after that, who will pay? The street welcomes them with joy and a big hug. What did you think? That the street would tell them no? I never heard that a child who was thrown into the street rejected him.
Tuvia Benaim, z"l, who was murdered in the assassination attempt near Gan Shmuel, photo: courtesy of the family
"I would like to convey a message to the ultra-Orthodox public. When you throw a child into the street, make an account that he will not end up on the street but in a cemetery. What's on the street? He hangs out in bad places with bad people.
"I say to parents: Don't be afraid of anyone, don't be ashamed of anyone, fight for your children without shame. Because parents are ashamed, children are thrown into the street. Don't be afraid of what they'll say. Here I was paying a price. I fought for Tuvia Bezalel toothlessly. I wasn't afraid of anyone. God will settle accounts with them. God will not give up. It's about souls! Children! Deposit received. God wants every single child, no matter."
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