On Tuesday morning, January 3, thousands of persons attended the funeral of an Arab-Palestinian teenager from Israel who was killed in the shooting attack at an Istanbul nightclub during Saturday night’s New Year’s festivities. Lian Zaher Nasser,19, was buried in her hometown of Tira in central Israel as mourners lamented the teen’s life having been cut short in the terror attack that claimed 39 victims, most of them foreign tourists. Among those attending the funeral were MKs from a delegation of the Joint List headed by MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) and representatives of the Palestinian Authority sent by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Lian Zaher Nasser (Photo: Al Ittihad)

On Monday, the Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the New Year’s Eve attack at the exclusive Reina nightclub in Istanbul, where Nasser was celebrating along with three friends from the Arab-Palestinian city of Tira, one of whom was wounded in the shooting rampage.

On Monday, the Tira municipality declared Tuesday a day of mourning and asked residents of the city to attend the funeral. The Joint List also called for as many people as possible to participate in the burial of young Lian. In a communiqué it issued, the Tira branch of the Communist Party of Israel described IS as a fascistic cancer. “Lian was the daughter of us all and we share the sorrow of the Turkish people and the grief of the families of all the victims that fell in this shocking slaughter,” the communiqué added.

The Joint List also condemned social media messages which lauded the attack, referring to them as “creeping IS-ism,” and called on the Arab public to dismiss such comments, “which endanger the entire Arab community, its identity, its existence and its fundamental struggles.”