‘I’m extremely proud of them’ – Father and husband of British-Israelis killed in West Bank calls for peace
The father and husband of three British-Israelis murdered in the West Bank this month has told Sky News that he is immensely proud of his wife and daughters, and called on the international community to come together to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
In an exclusive interview at the family home in the Israeli settlement of Efrat, Rabbi Leo Dee said he has faith that some good could come from the tragedy and praised the British government for changing its response to the attack.
The Dee family were driving up the Jordan Valley in the West Bank on Friday 7 April, en route to a Passover holiday on Lake Galilee.
Rabbi Leo Dee
Leo Dee was ahead, in a separate car with two of his children.
Palestinian gunmen shot at the car containing Lucy Dee and two of their daughters Maia, 20, and 15-year-old Rina.
Their car was forced off the road, and the terrorists stopped and fired at it again. Twenty bullet casings were found near the car. Maia and Rina were pronounced dead at the scene. Lucy was airlifted to a hospital outside Jerusalem for emergency surgery.
“I called Lucy, no answer. I called Maia, no answer. I called Rina, and no answer. We were slightly panicking at this point and I looked on Google family link and found that they were at the Hamra Junction and that seemed to be where this attack was.
“My son received on this website a photo of the car. Just the car, and we spotted our suitcases in it, covered in blood.”
They turned around and drove back to the junction but police wouldn’t allow them to go to the car.
However, they were shown Maia’s ID card. At that point, they knew the worst had happened.
Lucy Dee (left), Rina (middle) and Maia. Pic: @LtColRichard
“We bombed back down the motorway to Jerusalem, went to the hospital, she [Lucy] had just been taken into intensive care and was being prepared for an operation.
“The Friday night of the attack, I was in hospital and I had nightmares and then I woke up and my reality was worse than the nightmares, so I went back to sleep and then I had another nightmare. All I could picture was the moment of the crash and the terrorists and the bullets.
“The next night, I decided to focus on the good and I suddenly focused on my two remaining daughters and my son and I thought about them, and I felt a sense of calm and I was able to sleep.”
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‘Our family of seven is now a family of four’
Lucy never regained consciousness and died of her wounds three days later. She donated her organs after her death and five people’s lives have been saved as a result.
“She was declared dead on the Monday and we spent that afternoon, one after another we had half an hour, an hour each to talk to her, we sang to her together and we had a lot of time to have her in front of us,” Rabbi Dee said.
One of the recipients of her organs was an Arab.
“I think that is significant to us because Lucy was very much into peaceful relations with our neighbours and I think she would have been very proud that she saved the life of an Arab.”
Lucy Dee’s children at her funeral
Thousands of people have travelled from across Israel and the world to pay their respects and bring food to the family Shiva, the seven-day period of mourning in the Jewish faith.
As we arrived, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had just flown in by military helicopter to see the family.
“Lucy was an exceptional human being,” Rabbi Dee said. “She was a community builder, she was someone who gave and that was really her defining feature.
“The kids picked up from that and they’ve learnt to give.”
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Maia was working as a counsellor in a school and Reena was at boarding school.
“She [Lucy] would stay up all night talking to girls, particularly girls who were struggling in the group and she would try and help them through their difficulties. She was just busy, busy the whole time. I’m extremely proud of all of them.”
Rabbi Dee was born and grew up in England. He went to Cambridge University and Lucy studied at Oxford – they met in Oxford and married shortly after.
Later he was an assistant Rabbi at a synagogue in north London before moving to Radlett in Hertfordshire. They moved to Israel in 2005.
Maia (left) and Rina (right) were killed in a shooting in the West Bank on Friday 7 April, 2023. Their mother died from her injuries three days later
Rabbi Dee praised the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly for hardening the initial British response to the attack and said he was calling it the “Cleverly Declaration”, comparing it to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which said Britain would support the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
“I feel that statement, saying that Britain stands unequivocally against violence and against terror, is a landmark in British history in terms of the way it’s dealt with the State of Israel.
“Up until now, there’s not been unequivocal condemnation of violence, there’s actually been a very sort of wishy-washy condemnation of violence which I think is slightly the Foreign Office’s fault,” he said.
Lucy Dee’s three children (middle) and her husband (right) at her funeral
“He [Cleverly], did the right thing, he did the true thing and I can only thank him from the bottom of my heart. This may be the beginning of a new cycle of peace.
“We need to stop giving terror any possible window of goodness, we have to condemn it outright, it’s outright evil, terrorists are outright evil. They have to be told that and treated as such.”
The Israeli military and security services are still hunting for the attacker, so far without success.
An Israeli policeman at the scene of a shooting
“I don’t hold any hate towards them. I feel that the Israeli security forces will do what they usually do which is to track them down and bring them to justice which I think is right because it prevents the next attack that they might do.
“I have faith, I have hope and I believe that the violence is actually caused by a small percentage of the Palestinian population and the vast majority of Palestinians are good people.
“They are prime victims of the Palestinian regime, as are the people in Gaza victims of their regime.”
Jordan Bardella has had a makeover.
Like many in the new generation of right-wing European politicians, he has a neat haircut and sharply cut suits – now add to that glasses and some light stubble.
It’s all designed to achieve two things: clean up a historically toxic and racist far-right brand, and disguise his youth.
Bardella is only 30 years old, he has little life-experience outside politics, but he will be the next president of France in 2027 if new polls hold up.
The rebrand is working. For the first time this week, French polling company Odoxa predicted Bardella would win the presidency whatever his competition.
Bardella has a strong social media presence – 1.2 million followers on Instagram, 2.2 million on TikTok. It’s attracting a youth following who identify with this young pretender.
Bardella attracts plenty of fans wherever he goes
“We find that he thinks about us, about future generations, and that he’s trying to improve things for us,” a young girl told us as she waited for Bardella to arrive at the latest stop on his national book tour.
“We really feel like he’s there for us.”
“Everything he says is really good,” her friend added. “He’s got a bit of humour as well.”
Neither are yet old enough to vote. They will be by the time the next elections come around, though.
There are plenty of youngsters drawn to Bardella’s campaign
A platform for the presidency
Bardella’s new book, What The French People Want, is his snapshot of France today – told through the eyes of 21 ordinary French people, presumably carefully selected.
The collection of short stories paints a picture of a country that has drifted from its national identity. It is Bardella’s platform to campaign for the presidency in 2027.
We spent the day with him on his book tour (campaign launch) in the town of Vesoul in eastern France. It’s classic new National Rally territory.
The town has voted for the right-wing party in the last two elections, and its MP is another 30-something in the mould of Bardella.
“Sh*t, the enemy,” one person remarked when they overheard us speaking English. “Were you at the battle of Waterloo?”
Bardella’s book release comes less than two years before the presidential election, due in spring 2027
The reception Bardella got, especially among the young, was hysterical. For well over an hour as the rain started to fall, he was surrounded by a crowd shouting his name and barging their way into his line of vision for a valuable selfie.
Bardella took his time, flashing his smile for hundreds of photos, savvy enough to know that each one posted on Instagram or Facebook is free advertising for his campaign.
But not everyone’s a fan…
Vesoul is friendly ground for Bardella, but National Rally remains a toxic brand in many people’s eyes. Plenty of French do not want to see him become their next president.
As the light faded and Bardella moved from one market stall to another at the town’s annual fair he was suddenly attacked by a local schoolboy who threw flour at him.
Bardella was bundled into a nearby gazebo and quickly surrounded by advisers and security.
His assailant, a 17-year-old, was arrested and taken away by police who had otherwise been standing to one side as the circus rolled through.
Not everyone’s a fan of the young pretender
Bardella’s smart blue raincoat was now covered in white dust. The atmosphere turned as cold as the late November evening.
His security tried to stop us filming, flashing lights into our camera and physically threatening us as they escorted their man away through the now largely deserted market stalls.
“Next time I’ll beat you,” one of them shouted, wielding an umbrella.
Bardella’s social media channels would later make no reference to the incident. Follow him and watch them, and you would never know anything happened.
A short time later, cleaned up and in a change of clothes, Bardella was smiling again and posing for more selfies at a hotel in the town centre.
Has France had enough of ‘experts’?
Outside, hundreds waited in the cold and drizzle to get their copies of his book signed. The image of long queues around France is one that his social media team has pounced on.
Bardella has little to no experience outside of politics, having joined National Rally as a 16-year-old and dropping out of university. His youth and lack of another career is a criticism he dismisses with a well-rehearsed answer when I spoke to him between signings in a rare interview.
Bardella voting in last year’s snap parliamentary elections, which have caused chaos in French politics. Pic: Reuters
“That’s an argument I hear often from my political opponents, but only when it suits them,” he says.
“When the mayor of New York is elected at 34, the left applauds. When Gabriel Attal becomes prime minister at 33, the right applauds.
“I don’t believe age is any guarantee of effectiveness. For 30 years, our country has been led by people we were told were experts: people from elite schools, people presented to us as the brightest minds in finance. We can’t exactly say the results have been outstanding.”
Detoxifying the brand
He, and the party, have tried to distance themselves from the openly antisemitic and racist views of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, remains the party matriarch but is banned from running for office after being found guilty of embezzling funds earlier this year. She will appeal but if she loses Bardella is her chosen successor.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. Pic: AP
Bardella has visited the Holocaust memorial of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and severed links with the extremist AfD in Germany. But he stills holds what many would regard as extreme views on immigration, classifying it as “a major emergency” and vowing to abolish “droit du sol” – the automatic birthright to French citizenship.
“All European countries, including the United Kingdom, are realising that immigration poses a threat to the major balances of society and to European societies as a whole, because it creates tensions, fuels insecurity, disrupts our identity, and places an economic and social burden on public finances,” he says.
Backing for Farage
I put to Bardella the prospect that in a few years, he could be president of France and Nigel Farage could be prime minister of the UK – two of Europe’s biggest powers led by far-right leaders.
“I have a lot of respect for Nigel Farage, for his fighting spirit,” Bardella replied.
“I think he’s extremely solid. He has never wavered in his determination to defend the interests of the British people first, and I truly wish for the UK that he becomes prime minister.
“That’s a personal view, I’m not trying to interfere.”
Reform’s Nigel Farage – if you believe the polls, Britain’s likely next prime minister. Pic: PA
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Bardella has stopped short of proposing a “Frexit” but his views on the EU are clear, and Paris’s relationship with Brussels will undoubtedly change if he enters the Elysee Palace.
“Every time the European Union gets involved in something, it turns into a disaster,” he says.
“We handed agriculture over to the EU, it was a disaster. We handed energy over to the EU, companies are shutting down in France because energy prices and EU pricing rules have soared, especially since the start of the war in Ukraine. We entrusted immigration policy to the EU, again it was a disaster.”
He sees the UK as a major player in his vision for a reshaped Europe: “It is a great country, historically and geographically. I believe that in a Europe of nations, the UK would find a new role.”
And he is pro-Ukraine, telling me “a peace agreement cannot be made on Russia’s terms, because I do not underestimate, and no one should underestimate, President (Vladimir) Putin‘s intentions and ambitions”.
Bardella is capitalising on the dysfunction and deep unpopularity of Emmanuel Macron‘s administration. Four prime ministers in a little over a year have left the French public frustrated and disillusioned with the current leadership.
The country’s debt to GDP ratio is reaching crisis levels.
Bardella certainly presents something different and the French public, however sceptical, might just be fed up enough with the current generation of politicians to take a punt on him in 18 months’ time.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men in the West Bank after they appeared to be surrendering.
Palestinians said the killings, which were captured on video and shown on two Arab TV channels, were carried out “in cold blood”.
In the video, the men were seen exiting a building and lying on the ground in front of Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Both men lifted their T-shirts and held their hands in the air, apparently to show they were not carrying weapons or explosives.
The soldiers then appeared to order the men back inside the building before they were shot.
A Reuters journalist in the area saw the men leave the building, appearing to surrender, and later, after hearing shots fired, saw Israeli forces standing near what appeared to be a lifeless body.
The men were identified as al Muntasir Abdullah, 26, and Yousef Asasa, 37, by Palestinian authorities.
Footage of the incident has been broadcast on Arab TV channels
What has Israel said about the incident?
A joint statement between the Israeli Defence Forces and Israeli police said: “Earlier this evening (Thursday), during an Israel Border Police and IDF operation in the area of Jenin, the forces operated to apprehend wanted individuals who had carried out terror activities, including hurling explosives and firing at security forces.
“The wanted individuals were affiliated with a terror network in the area of Jenin.
“The forces entered the area, enclosed the structure in which the suspects were located, and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours. Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited.
“Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects.
“The incident is under review by the commanders on the ground, and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies.”
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the military and police unit involved in the shooting had his “full backing”.
“The fighters acted exactly as expected of them – terrorists should die!” he wrote on X.
A Reuters journalist captured images from near the scene. Pic: Reuters
‘An outright extrajudicial killing’
But Palestinians and human rights groups say Israeli investigations in such incidents yield few results, with Israeli troops rarely prosecuted.
The Palestinian prime minister’s office in Ramallah also accused Israel of executing the men “in cold blood”, calling the shooting “an outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law”.
Yuli Novak, the executive director of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, said: “The execution documented today is the result of an accelerated process of dehumanisation of Palestinians and the complete abandonment of their lives by the Israeli regime.
“In Israel, there is no mechanism that acts to stop the killing of Palestinians or is capable of prosecuting those responsible.”
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Israel’s military has scaled up its military operations in the West Bank since the October 7 Hamas attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to B’Tselem, which said the perpetrators were “granted full impunity by Israel”.
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