Mother of Comatose Three-Year-Old Testifies Against Palestinian Rock Throwers

Anav Silverman / Tazpit News Agency

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Adele Biton. Photo: Israel Matzav

The five Palestinian suspects arrested in connection with the rock attack that left three-year-old Adele Biton from the Yakir community in critical condition nearly one year ago, heard from Adele’s mother during their trial last Thursday, February 13.

In March 2013, Adele Biton was critically injured following a Palestinian rock attack on her mother’s car, which also moderately injured her two sisters, Avigail and Naama. Palestinians had hurled rocks at the family’s vehicle on Route 5 near the city of Ariel, causing the mother, Adva, to crash into an incoming truck.

Since the attack, Adele has been hospitalized and is now at the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Center in Ra’anana, where she remains unconscious to this day. Her third birthday was celebrated last year when she was in intensive care. Both her mother and father take turns spending every hour of the day at their daughter’s bedside.

Last week, Adele’s mother testified against the Palestinian assailants at the Megiddo military court. She spoke of the tragic consequences that the rock attack had on her family and on Adele, who was two-years-old at the time.

“To see a child connected to a million pipes is very difficult. Her life has been destroyed because of the rock throwing. It is difficult for me to cope with the fact that my daughter will be handicapped in every way because of such an act,” Adva Biton told the court. “All her joy, all her life was taken from her.”

Her mother further explained that Adele cannot laugh, eat, or do anything on her own. “It hurts me to see her confined to a wheelchair, not engaging with the world. It’s a daily trauma to see your child gasping with her head hanging down and you can’t do anything.”

“I am not home anymore, I am not available for my three kids,” said Adva, recounting the toll on her family. “I’m supposed to be a mother but I live in Levenstein Hospital. My husband has not really been home in over 10 months.”

Biton is fighting to keep her daughter’s story in the public consciousness, according to a report in Ma’ariv. She also aims to take Adele’s case to international courts as well.

According to the official blog of the Israel Defense Forces, Palestinians launched more than 2,400 rock throwing attacks at Israelis in 2013. Thirty percent were directed at civilian vehicles, and 116 civilians were injured because of these attacks.