PETER KOHN

AN 89-year old Melbourne woman is mourning the death of her great-nephew, who was one of the victims of a shooting rampage at a Tel Aviv centre for gays.

For Tema Alexander of Caulfield, the murder of Nir Katz is a double tragedy, as her nephew, Ram Katz, Nir’s father, died in an operational accident in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) 19 years ago.

Ram was killed in what came to be known as the ‘Tze’elim disaster’ in 1990, in which five soldiers were killed during training, when Nir was seven years old.

Nir, who was 26 when he died, completed his service with an elite intelligence unit of the IDF 18 months ago, and was a volunteer for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transvestite Association.

Mrs Alexander, a mother of one, knew Nir from birth, and when she was younger, she travelled to Israel many times to visit her late sister Gita Katz, a Likud official, who was Nir’s grandmother, and spent many hours with Nir and Ram.

“Rami would drive us all around the country, showing us parts of Israel that not many people had seen,” she told The AJN.

Mrs Alexander heard about the August 1 shootings while listening to the radio last Sunday (Melbourne time), and the revelation that Nir was one of the victims was confirmed by another relative who visited her home with the horrific news, she said.

“I’d just turned to him to tell him about what I’d heard on the radio, when he said to me, ‘That is what I’ve come to talk to you about’,” she said.

“It’s terrible to lose two members of the same family like that, the father and the son. It’s good in a way that my sister’s no longer alive, so she doesn’t have to go through the pain.

“I hope the police will eventually find [the killer],” she said, describing the culprit as “not normal”.

Katz, and Liz Trobishi, 16, were killed and 15 more were wounded when a gunman opened fire on the gay-lesbian youth centre on Nachmani Street in downtown Tel Aviv.

Israeli police are interviewing witnesses and continuing their manhunt but no arrests have been made so far.

The shooting spree has focused attention on vocal anti-gay activists in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, but Mrs Alexander said she is opposed to hate-crimes laws.

“Israel is a free society and everyone should live as they wish. There is freedom to accept everyone.”

Mrs Alexander was able to follow the funeral of Nir, and words of tribute from Nir’s mother Ayala, her niece, on SBS television, she said.