Father of terror victim blasts Germany for brokering Hamas prisoner deal

Victims of Palestinian terror furious that German government is brokering a new prisoner swap with Hamas.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel New

An Israeli man whose teenage daughter was murdered in a 2003 Hamas bombing blasted the German government for brokering a new deal with Hamas to release convicted terrorists in return for Israeli hostages, Ynet reported Thurdsay.

Ron Kehrmann’s daughter Tal, 17, was one of 17 people, including nine schoolchildren, murdered when a Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Haifa. Fifty-three others were wounded in the attack. Kehrmann is furious that Germany is leading the negotiations that may see the release of hundreds of convicted terrorists.

Kehrmann, whose family is from Germany, holds dual Israeli-German citizenship. He fired off an angry letter to German ambassador to Israel Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer after Ynet revealed that German diplomats were negotiating with the Hamas terror group for the release of Israeli civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed and the bodies of IDF soldiers Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul.

“The [Haifa bombing] terrorist was sent by Hamas, the same organization that the German government is actively helping release the terrorists that belong to it from Israeli prisons,” Kehrmann wrote.

“I demand that your government not take any part in the release of terrorists,” Kehrmann said. “Germany is again taking an active part in trying to free terrorists who murdered Jews and Israelis.”

Goldin and Shaul were killed in the 2014 conflict sparked by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas members. Both Mengistu and al-Sayed had known mental health issues when they walked into Gaza and were taken hostage by Hamas, Mengistu in 2014 and al-Sayed in 2015.

Hamas wants to exchange the civilian hostages and the bodies for hundreds of convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons, trying to duplicate its success in getting 1,027 terrorists in the 2011 deal for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

Kehrmann is a veteran activist in Almagor, an association of victims of Palestinian terror that protested against the Shalit deal, which the Germans helped negotiate.

“We are facing another surrender to terrorism as we surrendered in October 2011,” he wrote.

“Since 2011 – the previous surrender – 10 Israelis have been murdered by the same released terrorists, and dozens of Israelis have been injured,” he said, adding that the move simply allowed convicted terrorists to rejoin their organizations to carry out future attacks.

“There is no such thing as terrorists with no blood on their hands, and it does not matter which prisoners are released. They are all terrorists and the next [Israeli] victim is already among us, we just don’t know yet their face and name.”

Kehrmann said Israel doesn’t need any favors from Germany and can take care of its own affairs. “The Israeli government has enough means to cause Hamas to return the bodies of the soldiers and the two civilians without releasing terrorists.”