Father and husband of killed British-Israelis has no regrets about moving to country: ‘It was fate’
Lucy Dee, 48, died three days after her daughters, Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, were shot and killed in the West Bank on 7 April
The husband of a British-Israeli woman murdered with her daughters in the West Bank has said he is still “100 per cent glad” his family moved to the country.
Lucy Dee, 48, died three days after her daughters, Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, were shot and killed on April 7.
The family of seven, who moved to Israel from the UK in 2014, had been travelling in separate cars en route to a Passover holiday.
Mrs Dee’s husband Leo Dee is a rabbi, and they have a son and two other daughters.
Mr Dee told LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr: “We moved to Israel because we thought it was the right place to educate our children, bring them up with the values we respect and wanted them to have.
“I believe we brought up our children with those values, with the support of the community and I’m still 100 per cent glad that we came here.
“What happened to us was one in 10 million and sadly car crashes happen all around the world, and these things happen and really there was no way of preventing it.
“It was just completely extraordinary fate.”
Mr Dee was formerly the senior rabbi at Radlett United Synagogue in Hertfordshire and assistant rabbi in Hendon, north London.
The family lived in the Efrat settlement, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, according to the settlement’s mayor, Oded Revivi.
Mr Dee said he does not hold any hatred towards the Palestinian terrorists believed to be responsible for the attack.
He said: “I don’t hold any hate towards them. The Israeli security forces will do what they usually do which is track them down and bring them to justice, which I think is right because it prevents the next attack that they might do.”
In a statement from Mrs Dee’s brother, Benjamin Shaw – made on behalf of both the Dee and Shaw family, he said: “We are devastated by the brutal murder of our dear Lucy, Maia, and Rina.
“Their absence leaves a void in our hearts that can never be filled.
“We are deeply touched by the words of the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, who has shown great compassion in acknowledging our loss.
“His firm stance against terrorism sets a new standard for nations and media in addressing acts of terror.
“We see this as the ‘Cleverly Declaration’, akin to the ‘Balfour Declaration’, establishing that terrorism can never be justified.”
Mr Cleverly had written to Rabbi Dee, offering the family the assistance of the British government, with his letter stating: “There can be no justification for such senseless and abhorrent violence, and I unequivocally condemn this act of terrorism.”