Yakir Eshbal and his new wife won’t forget their wedding for a long, long time but perhaps wish they could.
Yakir and his wife, whose identity has not been published, were married at a Jerusalem social hall where right-wing extremists apparently crashed the party and staged the “hate dance” that was video-taped and shown here on The JewishPress.com and on other websites around the world today.
Shahar Eshbal, father of the groom, and his son maintain that the extremists, who raised rifles and knives and even stabbed the photo of an Arab during the dance.
The father said:
We were far away from the area of all the dancing. I was around the guests I had invited. Only later, people told me that there was an unusual dance during one song. I saw from far away people waving pictures in the air. I thought maybe they were pictures of Jewish victims who were injured.
I never would have imagined that what happened was possible.
If I knew, I would have thrown them out… If we would have known, we would have stopped them immediately. I would have gone up to the stage myself and told them that I don’t permit this and that we are completely against it.
Yakir was quoted by his father as saying:
Dad, I don’t know them.
He said Yakir invited approximately 50 friends, but 150 were dancing. It is not known if the bride knew the “guests.”
Yakir’s father added, “Yakir is just starting his life and is in a big mess already, just like us. He is trying to escape as far away possible from the incident, it [his wedding] was a special moment for him.
“We are law-abiding citizens. We served in the IDF and always donated to the country. We were never taught the way of hatred. We fought this way all the time, but my boy went along with all of his friends and their stupid actions. In the past year, he has really stayed away from this bad-influence group.”