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VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY
Yoni Jesner’s final sacrifice 6 February 2025 • 8 Shvat 5785 • Issue No.1405 •
@JewishNewsUK
Mother of British teen killed in Tel Aviv bombing reluctantly accepts killer’s release to save hostages by Richard Ferrer richard@jewishnews.co.uk @richferrer
The mother of Yoni Jesner, the Scottish teenager killed in a 2002 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, says she feels a “surreal sense of disbelief ” at the release of the terrorist who masterminded the attack. Ashraf Zughayer, who arranged the bombing that killed six people, including 19-year-old Jesner, was released from prison on 25 January after serving just 22 years of six life sentences. Zughayer drove suicide bomber Muhammad al-Ghoul from East Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, dropping him at the Allenby Street bus stop moments before the attack that killed Jesner. His release came as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. He was given a hero’s welcome in East Jerusalem, paraded through the streets on the back of a car
Marsha with her son Yoni
and draped in Hamas flags as crowds cheered. Yoni’s mother, Marsha Gladstone, has shared her family’s anguish about the decision, telling Jewish News: “We feel a surreal sense of disbelief that this is even possible, that this person can be out and about, enjoying the freedom he stole from our beloved son. That 22 years later he is a free man. It’s shocking and sickening.” But reflecting on the broader implications of the hostageprisoner exchange, Gladstone, who was not notified by the Israeli government about Zughayer’s release, added: “I understand there is a greater duty at play here. That we need the hostages home and the price to pay is an awful one. “If the loss of Yoni can somehow contribute to something good, even all these years later, to bringing home the hostages to their families, then that is at least a small comfort to me in this crazy world.” In a moving column for The Free Press, headlined ‘The Terrorist who murdered my cousin now walks free’, Yoni’s cousin, Rabbi Gideon Black, who narrowly survived the bus bombing, expressed his anguish at seeing Zughayer walk free. Black wrote: Continued on page 2
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