The picture is of four-year old Afik Zahavi, who was murdered by Hamas in a Kassam rocket attack on Sderot at 8:15 a.m. on June 28, 2004. The picture is from a post two years ago by Anne Lieberman, recalling Afik’s murder:
[H]is mom, Ruti (Ruth) . . . was walking him to the nursery school when the kassam hit. Ruti was seriously injured. I know that after ten hours of surgery she remained in critical condition, but I don't know what happened to her after that.
She and Afik's father had tried for fifteen years to have a child. They finally opted for in-vitro fertilization and Afik was their "miracle."
According to the Jerusalem Post, "Hamas' military wing … claimed responsibility for the attack." What they actually said was, "with the help of Allah, two Zionists were killed and a number of Zionist settlers were injured."
Thanks to Naomi Ragen, we learned yesterday a little more about what Ruthie Zahavi has been doing recently. On August 21, she filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court – the lead plaintiff (together with 64 other plaintiffs) in a case against Bank of China Limited (“BOC”), which has an office in Los Angeles.
The complaint alleges BOC failed to “observe or enforce the U.S. Sanctions Regime” against Hamas, providing “extensive banking services” (involving the wire transfers of “several million dollars” that were “executed by and through BOC’s branches in the United States”) with “actual knowledge” that the wire transfers were intended to facilitate terrorist attacks. A copy of the complaint can be downloaded here.
There is not enough space in this post for the stories of the other plaintiffs –all suing for the loss of loved ones in the April 17, 2006 bombing in Tel Aviv, the January 29, 2007 bombing in Eilat, the November 21, 2006 rocket attack on Shaar HaNegev, the July 14, 2005 rocket attack on Nativ Ha’asarah, the November 15, 2006 rocket attack on Sderot, the January 15, 2005 rocket attack on Sderot, and the May 13, 2004 rocket attack on Sderot – all during a time when BOC was allegedly providing “banking services” to Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad while knowing what they were abetting.
In a time when the world repeatedly ignores the intentional murder of children, year after year, with rockets indiscriminately aimed at schools in the morning, as children are on their way there with their mothers, perhaps a modicum of justice will be found in an American court.