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The Loss of Koby: In Israel, Waiting for Hatred of Jews to End

(Cox/Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Craig Nelson - Sherri Mandell has yet to be infected by the new mood of optimism that has swept Israel and the Palestinian territories. "I'm a mother, and I have to have hope," she said. It's just that nearly four years ago, what she describes simply as evil burst into her life and forever changed it. On May 8, 2001, her 13-year-old son, Koby, and his friend Yosef Ish-Ran, 14, were stoned to death in a cave near the family's home in Tekoa on the West Bank. For Sherri Mandell and her husband, Seth, both born and reared in the U.S., the savagery of Koby's assailants exemplifies a hate and fury that permeate Palestinian society. More than 1,000 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians since September 2000, 97 of them under the age of 16. "They have to say, 'It's not OK to kill innocent Jews. That wasn't OK.' I don't hear them saying that," said Sherri. "The Palestinian mothers have to say, 'We're not sending our children on suicide bombings. We're not going to affirm this kind of martyrdom in our culture.' That's what I'm waiting for," she says. Meanwhile, the pain of Koby's killing never disappears. "There's a constant background of pain that you can't escape," Seth Mandell said. "It's like being in jail."
2005-03-11 00:00:00
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