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THE HERO WITH THE FLAG
Tuesday, 14/7/2009
Yediot Ahronot
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In an exceptional gesture, Puerto Rico
chose a teenager, Amiel Ortiz, who was wounded by
a booby-trapped Purim gift basket a year and a half ago in Ariel, to lead
their contingent in the opening ceremony.
Article by Reuben Weiss
Amiel Ortiz, an exceptional athlete who is 16 and a half years old
from Ariel, made headlines a year and a half ago when he was critically
wounded on Purim from a booby trapped Purim gift basket that was brought to
his family's home. In a very exciting and unique gesture, the Puerto
Rican contingent to the Maccabiah Games decided
to choose him to lead their contingent yesterday in the opening ceremony.
In the month of March 2008, Ortiz, who at the time was the captain of the
Teens Divsion Ariel HaPoel
basketball team, returned to his home and
found a wrapped package on the table that had been placed by the door of
his house, and which was brought inside by the housekeeper. Ortiz,
because it was Purim eve, reasoned that it
was a Purim gift package. He opened it and it exploded,
wounding him critically. The doctors at Beilenson Hospital where the teenager was
brought fought to save his life. "He suffered 3rd degree burns,
more than 100 pieces of metal and glass shards penetrated every part of his
body, and until today, he has undergone 11 operations", Ortiz's mother Leah told us yesterday.
As a result of the bomb that was sent to the family's home, an
investigation was opened by the police and the secret services, on the
suspicion that the terror attack was carried out against the background
of religion, because the teenager belongs to a family which belongs to the
group called Messianic Jews, that believe that Yeshua
is the Messiah and who pray to him. Despite their efforts, the
investigation hasn't come up with anything.
Ortiz, who still has most of
the shards remaining in his body, and whose doctors
were forced to amputate parts of his toes on his left foot from the
severe injury that he sustained, began the difficult rehabilitation
process. "The boy is a hero" his mother said yesterday, talking
about Ortiz who is the youngest of her 6 children. "He didn't
give up; he successfully finished this school year and will begin the 11th
grade in the Fall. About 10 months ago he also gradually went back to
basketball. He still has to undergo about 5 more operations".
The severe attack also
aroused response from the Jewish community and Christians all over the
world, and from there they have anxiously and with great interest followed
Ortiz's rehabilitation and the progress of the investigation. Ortiz's
father who immigrated to Israel
from the U.S. is from a
family of Puerto Rican origin, and is friends with the Jewish community in Puerto Rico who have followed the case, and turned to
the family, requesting that the teenager lead the contingent in the opening
ceremony of the Maccabiah Games. "We
and Amiel were very excited by this exceptional
turn of events", Leah said yesterday.
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