Ron Kehrmann is the father of three: Tal z'l, Dror and Mika. His daughter Tal was murdered on March 5th, 2003 in a terror attack on bus #37 in Haifa. Mika was born 4 years later.
Since 2003, Ron's main concern has been to increase awareness for the security of the individuals living in Israel. Ron meets regularly with groups in Israel and abroad to tell them about Tal and Israel's story first-hand. Ron was born in Haifa and still lives there today. After the horrific murders in Itamar, Ron composed the following letter to Pink Floyd's former frontman Roger Waters in the wake of his joining the loud and public condemnation of Israel.
Haifa, Israel March 14th 2011
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| Roger Waters at the wall. |
Dear Roger Waters,
You recently joined the cultural boycott against Israel very vocally. Since last Friday, I have been looking for your condemnation of the brutal murder of 5 family members from Itamar. Regardless of one's political opinion, such a brutal murder... with a knife, slaughtering a mother, her children, and her husband has to be condemned.
I am sorry to learn from your letter Mr. Waters, that your concern is biased. It is based on misinformation, fueled by Al Jazeera's propaganda.
In your letter, Roger, you demanded to dismantle the separation fence. The fact is that this fence has saved the lives of hundreds of people on both sides of it. Since the partial completion of the fence a few years ago, the number of terror attacks in Israel were reduced to almost none.
The right to live comes ahead of any other right.
Mr. Waters, you decided to join the BDS due to "the abhorrent and draconian control that Israel wields over the besieged Palestinians.". The fact is, in June 2007 "Hamas", a fanatic Islamic party, took over in a military revolution. Since then thousands of rocket and missiles were fired at the Israeli civil population.
Israel supplies all civil needs to the Gaza except for ammunition. Is preventing extremists in Gaza the access for materials to assemble rockets and other weapons a draconian act? As a genuine peace seeker, please check the details before joining a boycott. It is such a non-democratic action.
You are very concerned for "the rights of Arab citizens of Israel and granting them full equality".
The fact is that an Arab-Israeli has all the civil rights that I have as a Jewish Israeli - the only barrier is their own Arabic society which treats individuals joining the Israeli system as collaborators or leprous.
You end your letter stating that you are a true believer "that all people deserve basic human rights."
Well so did the Fogel family.
You call upon the world to support a nonviolent resistance. How do you describe the slaughtering of a father, a mother, an 11 year-old child, his 3 year-old brother and their 4 month-old sister?
Mr. Waters, joining the boycott based on false information can happen, I realize. But I hope that after reading my letter and learning the true facts you will reconsider your anti-democratic action.
And even if you do not change your mind, please do not let the human sensitivity I expect from a world-known artist go away. Condemn this brutal massacre!
Signed,
Ron Kehrmann, the father of Tal, killed in a terror attack March 5th 2003.
