Murderer of Israeli mother of six says terror is a legitimate form of resistance.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
The Palestinian terrorist who brutally murdered Israeli mother of six Esther Horgan in December 2020 challenged her family’s calls for him to be harshly punished in an Israeli military court on Wednesday. He characterized the slaying as an act of resistance that he was entitled to carry out.
During the sentence hearing, Horgan’s family said they would like to see Muhammad Kabha given a life sentence for the killing and an order to pay compensatory damages. Odelia Horgan, the victim’s daughter, spoke out about how the murder had affected the family.
“Since she’s been gone, our lives have been turned upside down,” Arutz Sheva reported her as saying. “Shock, our world has been shaken. The pain grows every day. How could such a human being perish from such a cruel act, disappear from the face of the earth?”
“Esther’s murder is personal to our family, to our community, and to all of Am Yisrael (the Jewish people),” Benjamin Horgan, the victim’s husband, told the court.
He said the Palestinian Authority was largely responsible for Kabha’s actions, citing their “encouragement of terrorism.” Horgan said it was “unfortunate” that Kabha was the only person being held to account for the killing, saying that “this murder was ordered” by the PA.
“According to the killer’s confession, he was inspired to go out and avenge the death of his friend who died in an Israeli prison,” Horgan said.
He explained that while that prisoner’s death had occurred naturally, it was presented to the public by the PA as an “execution [of a Palestinian by Israel], in [the style of] a blood libel, and it pushed [Kabha] to take revenge.”
By whipping up excitement via false narratives about alleged Israeli abuses of Palestinians, Horgan said, the PA has created an atmosphere which led to murder and should consequently be held responsible.
Referencing the PA’s pay-for-slay policies, Horgan said that Israel could no longer “lend a hand” to an institution that rewards the murder of Jews with funding.
“If we do not take a stand today, we will….[in the future] need to discuss the case of another terrorist who caused another family in Israel to be bereaved,” he added, calling upon Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other senior figures in the Israeli government to hold the PA accountable for both incitement and pay-for-slay.
Kabha, however, challenged the Horgan family’s assessment of events, saying that he had not been motivated by the PA.
“The family is saying that we’re dealing with incitement by the PA, but this is not incitement and not terror,” he said. “We’re talking about our right [to resist].”
He said he hopes that one day there will be peace, with no more killing on either side of the conflict.
Kabha’s absurd “pro-peace” remarks came some 13 months after he ambushed the French-born Israeli woman as she walked in the Reihan Forest near Tel Menashe in Samaria, overpowering her and repeatedly beating her in the head with rocks until she died.