A week after the murder of 19-year-old yeshiva student Dvir Sorek by Palestinian terrorists, the mourning surrounding the tragedy has crossed the traditional divide between Jews and Arabs.
Last week, the 19-year-old student, who was enrolled in a special program that combines military service with Torah study, was found stabbed to death in an area southwest of Jerusalem, near Migdal Oz in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
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Sorek had gone to Jerusalem to buy books for his teacher as an end-of-the-year present and was returning home when he was targeted by Palestinian terrorists.
His body was found by the side of the road, still clutching the books he had purchased, by popular Israel novelist and outspoken left-wing peace activist David Grossman.
Some of Sorek's Palestinian friends issued a public letter expressing shock over his killing on Tuesday, recalling his participation in the interfaith forum which is aimed at fostering dialogue between Islam and Judaism.
"Over the past two years, he would regularly attend our meetings," the letter read. "During each meeting, we talked about our daily lives and the future we wanted to build together. We would meet every other week, we were young Palestinians and Israelis."
The Palestinian friends chose not to reveal their full identity because of the potential backlash from terrorist sympathizers.
"We send our condolences to his family and to our friends in his yeshiva," they wrote. "As a group, we condemn such brutal actions; such violence hurts all of us. We build bridges between the peoples on this land and we hope that this tragedy will be the last."
