“My Dafna is one in a million, one in a million who grow up in a house that isn’t a home and still manage to recover and return kindness to the world. Dafna had a great crown, a crown of truth. She was very honest, and as sharp as a razor. Not everyone liked it but everyone knew how to appreciate it, and this truth is now thrown to the ground and shattered. I ask everyone who comes here to raise up something that was cast down to the ground, so that truth may grow from the land.”
To his departed wife, he said, “You left me with six treasures – I will keep them safe for you.
“My Dafna, thank you for every moment with you, and please forgive every moment in which I hurt you. Our great love is too much to pass away. Rest in peace and stand with all the dead of Israel until the end of times. Let us say Amen.”
Minister Regev also directed her words to Daphna Meir, and apologized on behalf of the government.
“I came here today to stand alongside you, a woman whose devotion is to life. I wish that I could have stood by you in your last fight against a vile murderer who slaughtered a mother in front of her children.
“You are a symbol of life. Against you stood a vile murderer. This was not regular terror or an extreme religious ideology.
“In the name of the government I have come to ask your forgiveness. We were not able to protect you.”
Minister Bennett’s words were more harsh.
“We are facing a nation that is sending its children to protect murderers, monsters who sanctify death – a nation whose leaders rejoice at every violent act. If we weren’t so sad we’d pity you, a nation whose heroes are those who murder our mothers.
“A nation such as this can never be part of the community of nations; a nation such as this will never have a state. There’s no state for hatred.”