JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds attended the funeral for the second victim of the driver who smashed his car into the light rail in eastern Jerusalem.
Karen Yemima Muscara, 22, who had come to Israel more than a year ago from her home in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to complete her conversion to Judaism, was buried Monday morning in the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem.
Muscara died the previous afternoon at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem from injuries suffered in the Oct. 22 attack. Her mother and her sister had been flown in from Ecuador and were with her when she died. Her father arrived in Israel to attend her funeral.
She was converting after discovering that she was descended from Conversos, Spanish Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism after 1492.
Her funeral took place shortly after the conclusion of the funeral in eastern Jerusalem for the Palestinian man who drove the car that crashed into the Jerusalem light rail stop, killing Muscara and a 3-month-old girl.
The funeral for Abdelrahman al-Shaludi was held up following disputes with Israel. He was buried at a Muslim cemetery near the Old City walls. Some 300 people reportedly participated in a funeral procession, though only family members attended the burial, according to reports.
The funeral was postponed from Saturday night following protests outside his home in the eastern Jerusalem flashpoint neighborhood of Silwan that security forces feared would grow further out of control during a funeral. The family was limited to 20 mourners at the cemetery; the names had to be submitted in advance.
Shaludi’s family had said on Sunday that it would not take his body for burial unless the restrictions on mourners was lifted.
Israel and the U.S. State Department have called the crash a terror attack. Shaludi’s parents say he lost control of the car.
