Likud party activist and convicted felon Rafi Kedoshim sparked outrage on Monday, telling a Knesset panel meeting on rising youth violence that the teens who ambushed and fatally stabbed pizzeria worker Yemanu Zelka last week “didn’t mean to kill him, just to stab him.”

Kedoshim was addressing a meeting of the Special Committee on the Rights of the Child called to address new data that showed a reversing trend after years of decline in youth violence. It also came amid widespread public horror in the wake of several high-profile murders, including the killing of Zelka, who was ambushed, beaten and stabbed to death by a gang of teens angered that he had asked them not to spray foam in the shop during Independence Day celebrations.

More than a dozen teens have been detained and police continue to hunt for others who were involved in the brutal attack on a main street in view of passersby and security cameras.

Kedoshim’s remarks prompted immediate condemnation from Yesh Atid MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, who accused him of trivializing the violence.

“Absolutely not, take it back. Those kids planned his murder. I am absolutely not ready to accept that statement. It’s a scandalous, trivializing statement,” she said.

Kedoshim later said he would take back his comments “if it would make her happy.”

Kedoshim, who served four prison sentences for acts of violence, kidnapping and extortion, is now a member of the Herzliya city council. His presence at the meeting, held after two stabbings involving minors, also prompted criticism from opposition lawmakers.

“Four months ago the son of Rafi Kedoshim, activist in the mafia organization called the Likud, was arrested for vandalizing the Otello ice cream parlor in Herzliya,” wrote MK Naama Lazimi (The Democrats) on X. “Today, he is invited as a guest to a Knesset discussion on youth violence.”

Her fellow party member, MK........

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