Dear Sir, a week ago we lost our son

September 5, 2014 by J-Wire
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The parents of Daniel Tregerman have written to UN Secretray-General Ban Ki-moon.

The following  letter was sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by Gila and Doron Tregerman, the parents of the late Daniel Tregerman, who was killed in a Hamas mortar attack on his kibbutz (Nahal Oz).

For UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon

Dear Sir,

My name is Gila, I am an Israeli citizen, and I am a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the border with Gaza.

A week ago, we lost our elder son, Daniel 4.5 yrs old, which was killed by a mortar shell, fired from Gaza into Israel deliberately.

I address you after your announcement to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to establish an international investigation Committee to investigate “Israel’s crime” in the recent fighting in Gaza.

Daniel Tregerman

Daniel Tregerman    [

acebook]About us: Doron and I were married five years ago and we have three amazing kids: Daniel 4.5 yrs, Yoval 3.5 yrs and Uri 4 months old. We were a happy family. We lived in Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza, and found ourselves constantly debating whether not to abandon Nahal Oz and move to another location, quieter, safer, far from rocket fire from Gaza, and far away from the alarms.

Then came the threat of terrorist tunnels, which Hamas members dug from Gaza to Israel under our home to hurt us. At night we heard noises and voices digging beneath us. Thus, in the last six months our children slept with the window closed and locked. We were afraid that they will be kidnapped from us.

Can you imagine our life, Mr. Secretary-General? How do you live in constant fear of mortar shell and terrorists emerging from tunnels?

Then, last Friday [August 22], Daniel was killed. All the precautions that we have taken have failed. Daniel, 4.5 yrs old, was killed in our House, while playing with Yoval in a tent built indoors and not outside, because it’s dangerous. He was killed from a mortar shell that was shot by terrorists from Gaza, he died in our hands. Daniel died in front of his little sister and his best friend Yoval, 3.5 years old; he died in front of Uri, only four months old and right before our eyes, his mother and father.

We failed. We couldn’t protect our beautiful and talented baby. Daniel was killed from a mortar shell that was fired by Hamas members from an elementary school for boys in Gaza City. It wasn’t a stray shell. It wasn’t accidental death. From that school terrorists fired deliberately to the kibbutz to murder civilians — children, women, old people. This time they also achieved the goal. Daniel was killed almost immediately. Daniel’s father, Doron, covered him with a blanket while crying bitterly and we escaped from home with two small children, leaving our precious son behind, in order to protect them from bombings who continued to explode around the house. Yoval, Daniel’s sister saw the terrifying sight and understood that something terrible happened. It is unbearable to watch that little child staring at the wall, in overwhelming silence with teardrops from her eyes.

This week, while the “shiv’ah”(Jewish ritual of mourning) at Doron’s parents home, we heard of your decision to appoint an international investigation Committee to investigate “Israel’s crime” in the recent fighting in Gaza. You informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu half an hour after our Daniel was killed, perhaps while he was lying dead in our living room, covered in a blanket.

The investigation Committee will examine the “crimes of Israel” during the fighting. The Committeeis not asked to investigate how terrorists shoot out of U.N buildings and schools.

The Committee is not asked to investigate how inside buildings of the United Nations and in hospitals in Gaza terrorist infrastructure flourish and maintain over time, or how from these places terrorist left for activity aimed against innocent people.

It wouldn’t investigate how Hamas is abusing the Palestinian people, and how its members impose on residents of Gaza, even on children, digging tunnels aimed only for terrorism against Israel.

It wouldn’t investigate how after these excavations carried out under duress and in slave-like conditions, the Hamas murdered the diggers, even the children, just to be sure they won’t be able to pass information to Israel.

Why are you silent? Does your silence indicate consent with the abuse of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people?

The answers to these questions will remain unknown.

And I want to ask you, Sir:

Are you and the U.N does not see the links that make up the global terrorism picture?

The terrorists units, fully equipped and full of hatred that attacked us in our homes, are the same units that kidnapped 43 UN observers in Syria; They are the same units that decapitated innocent people in Syria and Iraq; those unites crashed aircrafts into crowded buildings in 2001 in New York; those unites threaten the essence of democratic life, and life itself, in Europe, in the United States and anywhere on the plant.

Let me tell you some more about the history of our lives here, on the border with Gaza. My husband’s parents, Doron, also live near the border fence and three and a half years ago a Qassam rocket exploded and destroyed their home.

Up until a few years ago they had good relations with the residents of Gaza. They hired workers from Gaza to work in their fields and Paulina, Daniel’s grandmother, drove them home – to Rafah, every evening after work. They use to invite each other for weddings and other celebrations and often traveled to Rafah or Gaza to enjoy life at cafes there.

All that ended when Hamas rise to power and ordered the civilians who worked in Israel, to kill their Israeli employers; otherwise, Hamas would hurt their families. Daniel’s grandparents used to tell us this, longing and hoping that the good proximity will resume. They even found ways to maintain contact with their friends from Gaza during the mortar shell. Like the parents of Doron and their friends from Gaza, we want to live in good proximity, in peace and security. It is our hope that our neighbors, the people of Gaza will be able to live peacefully in their homes and build and develop their beautiful country. We believe that the vast majority of the people on this plant do not want to see the sights of blood, tears and fire of the radical Islam movement, but to live peacefully, enjoy kid’s laughter, wait for a better tomorrow.

We do not seek the people responsible for our Daniel’s death.

We only wish your response and your voice against this crime and the crime Hamas committed against their own people.

 

Gila and Doron Tregerman

Parents of Daniel (RIP), Yoval and Ori

Nahal Oz, Israel

Comments

One Response to “Dear Sir, a week ago we lost our son”
  1. Oleg says:

    Andrew, I’m not sure I like your tone in your reply to Mike, namely “your sort” “and cmpaing it up”, was this intentional?Of course certain Zionists, right leaning, evangelical Christians ones especially, might not like Mike also and not because he is an antizionist…….If you want an example on how to put an opposite view across in a far or erudite manner take a look at how Daniel Rosenstone answers critics of Israel (like Mike and yes me); a very good link Luke, I may disagree with him, but the lad knows how to argue. Hamas are not ideal; anti Semitic (a Mickey Mouse clone telling Palestinian kids to hate Jews) and their indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel hitting homes and schools are reprehensible. The slayings of innocent Israelis are repugnant, as is the machined slaughter of innocent Palestinians living in Gaza. If Israel wants the rockets to stop falling they have to cease operations immediately, ease the restrictions on Gaza and speak to the Hamas government (whether they accept their government/country or not, they have to live in the real world ). If the Palestinians want to have the siege lifted they have to cease all rocket attacks on Israel and have Hamas enter peace talks with her government (whether they accept Israel or not, they too have to live in the real world). They have to stop their racist rantings too which frankly insult the Palestinians intelligence.Talks have to mean something as this is not a problem that lends itself to a military solution. I still think the Jewish state image of Israel needs to be removed and instead have a multifaith secular state unified state (i.e not a 2 state solution as I can’t see how a Palestinian state would be viable) where minorities (Christian, Muslim , Baha’i)can hope for the high offices of President or Prime Minister just as much as their Jewish compatriots. Only that will end the violence. MR, the problem is not Palestinians having more children (which sounds moderately racist), rather the uncontrolled immigration of Jews to Israel (more so since the collapse of the USSR) as afforded to them in the Israeli constitution (the right to return) another thing that needs to be jettisoned.With Mike and Holocaust Remembrance day, I think (as I assume he does) we should remember the many people who were murdered by the Nazis, but I don’t think people got his point. The point he was trying to make was genocide did not end with the Nazis, we’ve seen it in Bosnia, Rwanda, and other places. He has placed the siege of Gaza in that category. Harsh, maybe, but accurate, I would say so. There have been many individuals in the Israeli leadership over the years talking about dealing with Palestinians. They have been compared to insects, speeches made saying how they must never return to their homes and even having their very existence questioned. If the leadership of Israel has such sentiment it is easy to see how with a modern well equipped army they can dispense with their “Arab Problem”. I’ll remember Holocaust Day by hoping one day we can all treat each other as human beings and remember not only those who were murdered by the Nazis but all people who have died and are dying in genocides since then.

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