The father who lost his son in an explosion of ammunition: “Life is more important than money”

“It’s not a monument, but we made a small mountain so that no one would step on it, to keep it a holy place,” says the father as he stands by the mound. “When we leave here one day, when they give us a permanent settlement – they will do what they want. As long as I am here, it will remain like this, like another grave for my son.”

The Bedouin village of Abu Kuider is located 14 km east of Be’er Sheva, near Highway 25, when the railway line between the Negev capital and Dimona kisses it. Dirt roads and huts next to stone houses next to a HMO clinic. On the one hand, the villagers calculate its end thanks to negotiations On the move to other lands and on the other hand it develops patch by patch.

In this chaos from time to time there are explosions, mostly emotional, but sometimes real, as happened on the evening of April 25, 2017. An explosion in which the son of Muhammad, Mahmoud and his cousin were killed.

About two months ago, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ruled that the Ministry of Defense would pay NIS 2.5 million in compensation to the family, a decision appealed by the state. During the trial years, Father Muhammad refused to speak to the media, but now he is ready to say everything, and also to return to that evening in late April when his son died at his hands, with his lips trying to breathe. “I came home from work around four-thirty, ate, showered and fell asleep on the couch. Three-quarters of an hour later I woke up from an explosion. The house was shaking and I thought maybe a truck overturned, because I heard a boom.”

“I looked and saw the woman, my mother and the children screaming. Suddenly I saw two children thrown wounded with blood outside the house like two bodies. I realized it was an explosion of explosives,” he recalls.

For 40 minutes he tried to feminize his son. At that time, he claimed, the rescue forces were unable to reach the scene and the villagers stood around him and waited. “When I got to them I saw that my brother’s son was dead, but my son was still breathing. I tried to save his life, but when the ambulance arrived, they could only say he was dead.” He does not remember his son’s last moments. “It’s a great pain to lose a son like that, an unpleasant situation and not something I as a father need. What is more expensive than a son? I did what I could in those moments but it was not enough.”

The court ruled that the explosion outside the father’s home was caused by a game between the two children with a 40mm bullet fired from a projectile that was left in place. According to the ruling, although the state tried to abdicate responsibility, it was found guilty of leaving the ball. Activity in the village (as the family claims) or a training ground was stolen not far away and rolled into the hands of the children.

“The defendant, who owed a duty of care to the residents of the area, did not prove that she carried out scans to locate falls for an incident in the area closest to the village, and in another area that is 14 km away – which also uses projectiles. The conclusion is that she acted negligently and is responsible for the damage caused, “the ruling said.

The State of Israel and the Ministry of Defense are appealing the ruling. Due to this, so far only NIS 300,000 has been paid to the family. In an appeal filed in the district court, the state alleges that the ammunition did not come from her hands but from someone else and even notes that an ammunition box was found in the family’s residential compound.

The story of leaving the ammunition is no stranger to the village, and Muhammad relates that he always educated his children not to pick up anything they did not know. What happened that day that caused the projectile to roll over to his son and cousin? “Maybe for a moment he forgot, maybe he thought it was a toy,” the father tells me in an attempt to come to terms with reality.

The money he won in the lawsuit is not comforting. With his help, another family home may be built in the new destination to which the village will be moved, but no penny in the bank account will heal the pit in his heart. “It’s not compensation because he is not equal to his life and dreams, life is always worth more than money. He was smart, ten and a half years old but thought like a 25 year old man, he was a leader of the guys in the village. I always told him to bring friends home it would be “In front of my and my mother’s eyes, because when you are far away I will not see you and maybe you will go to bad places or bad people,” the father recalled.

“You’ll never know how much it hurts until it happens to you. I can tell you but you will not digest it. I keep coming back to the event. Maybe I smile every now and then, but it’s all the time with me. “When I came back from work he would hug me, and suddenly he doesn’t have him,” he says in pain.

The father is sure that the demolition of a roof a few days earlier in the village resulted in the loss of the projectile by the police or the army. “The big chance is that he fell for them and the boy found and played with it. This is the negligence of people who came to do a job and did it irresponsibly. “Ammunition fell on them, the boy played with it, and two children died.”

“Every policeman or soldier knows what ammunition he is taking. We are in an orderly country, if a weapon falls on him he is not looking?”, He wonders. Although the state has been required to pay compensation, the question arises as to whether the bullet found may even belong to a criminal organization. The father, for his part, blames the security forces, who he said failed as soon as they forgot ammunition.

“In Moshav Nevatim or Be’er Sheva, this would not have happened,” he states. “They would worry even if a curfew had to be made and the settlement closed. They would not leave it, they would search until they find it. I see how the security is different and the attitude is different and the results are different elsewhere. At the end there are people who close their eyes to close the story “There are cases like this, I’m sure and maybe this is one of them.”

The insult regarding the treatment of him begins with not searching for the projectile until the treatment of the family after the incident. “No one came to ask what happened and how we were doing if we needed help. Nobody was interested. There was a case that happened and someone had to take responsibility and it was not me – or soldiers or policemen.” My son’s life is over and I miss and wish all the people of Israel not to see such cases, no matter who you are – Jewish, Arab or Druze who will be just happy. Life is a school and you learn from everything. “

“The story of the default and the tragedy consists of several layers,” says Koider’s lawyer, Yaniv Gavish. “It begins with the ongoing infrastructural neglect of the village population in all areas of life without exception. To this must be added the fact that the areas, which for families and children in the area are civilian and intended for daily life, are characterized by various security forces as actual training areas. Such a case would have become a victim of one of her favorite sons. “

The State Attorney’s Office responded: “An appeal was filed against the ruling, and the court ordered a stay of execution. The state claims that it has fulfilled its duty of care with regard to the preservation of fire areas and therefore there is no reason to charge it with compensation. According to the state, the weapons from which the deaths of the deceased were caused, were brought in an illegal way and without the knowledge of the state, and the state did everything in its power and beyond to prevent such cases.

“The State of Israel is under constant threat and needs extensive training areas to maintain its security. It is not possible to close fire areas completely hermetically. The state acts by many means, including information, to prevent entry into fire areas without a permit and certainly regarding the leakage of weapons.”