Tel Aviv traumatised but refuses to cower

A traumatised Tel Aviv sent a defiant message to terrorists this week, insisting that it’s business as usual across the city – even in the cafe where four people were murdered last Wednesday (June 8).

The families of the victims have been remembering the lives cut short when two Hamas-affiliated gunmen opened fire in a popular night spot.

A wife, two children and a mother and father were mourning Ido Ben Ari, 41. Ilana Neve, 39, left behind a husband, four children and her parents. A devastated fiance is grappling with the loss of Mila Mishiev, 33, as are her parents. And Michael Feige, 58, is being mourned by a wife and three children.

Pnina Motzafi-Haller, a colleague and former neighbour of Feige, spoke to The AJN about how his death reduced her to tears. “He was really a peace-loving person,” she said, pointing out the tragic irony of his murder.

Feige, a dovish sociologist who wrote on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was “the kind of neighbour you run to for a piece of butter or a cup of sugar”, said Motzafi-Haller. She added: “You heard time and time again that he was a friend of everyone who knew him – he was really loved.”

Read the full story by Nathan Jeffay in the Australian Jewish News