Israeli victim of Istanbul attack mourned
Mourners are streaming to the central Israel city of Tira to comfort the family of a 19-year-old woman killed by ISIS.
JERUSALEM – Mourners are streaming to the central Israel city of Tira to comfort the family of a 19-year-old woman killed by ISIS.
Lian Zaher Nasser (pictured), was one of 39 people killed by an ISIS gunman at a New Year’s celebration in an Istanbul nightclub.
She was laid to rest at a funeral attended by thousands on Tuesday, just over a week after another Israeli woman killed in a foreign terror attack, Dalia Elyakim, was buried.
Nasser, an Israeli-Arab, was on holiday in Istanbul with three friends, one of who was injured. Elyakim, killed in the Christmas market attack in Berlin, had been travelling with her husband Rami, who was badly injured in the attack.
In the Nasser family’s sorrow, it found help from an unexpected source – ultra-Orthodox Jews. The parents wanted to get their daughter’s body back to Israel as quickly as possible, but ran into difficulties as she wasn’t insured, and in the end enlisted the help of the Haredi-run rescue organisation ZAKA.
“ZAKA is an international humanitarian organisation that honors the dead, regardless of religion, race or gender,” said the organisation’s chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav.
Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin expressed condolences to all victims of the Istanbul attack, and made special reference to Nasser. “Just like all victims of the attack, Lian went out to celebrate New Year’s Eve and was murdered by a vicious terrorist,” he said. “We will continue to fight against terror – at home and abroad – bravely and unhesitatingly, until it is defeated.”
Israeli Arab politicians attending the funeral delivered similar messages, condemning ISIS terror.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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