A heartless landlord has allegedly demanded the roommate of a young Israeli woman who was kidnapped by Hamas at a music festival to pay her half of the rent – and threatened to throw out her belongings if he did not receive it, according to a report.
Inbar Hyman, 27, was among the masses who attended the Supernova rave where 260 people were slaughtered at the start of the terror group’s attack on Israel. Many were abducted Saturday, including the young student.
The landlord of the apartment in the northern city of Haifa where she has been living with her boyfriend of two years has demanded the full rent for the unit, Walla News reported.
When the boyfriend, Noam Allon, told him Hyman had been abducted, he allegedly replied: “Look for replacements. You are not doing me a favor by living there.
“Let it be clear to you: you have an obligation for the rent of 2,500 shekels. You can talk to her parents about vacating the room,” the landlord added, according to the news outlet.
Noam’s father, Mordi Allon, posted a screenshot of the exchange with the landlord – and it has since gone viral amid the national tragedy.
“Inbar is 27 years old, she and my son Noam have been together for two years. They study together and she is in her fourth year of studying visual communication,” Allon told Walla.
“On Saturday, she went with her friends to the nature party in Re’im and served as a helper for people who were feeling unwell,” he said.
“Her partner reached me and told me the landlord contacted him and asked what about the rent money. He wrote to him that Inbar was kidnapped and it just didn’t interest him,” Allon continued.
Rather than show some empathy, the landlord allegedly told the boyfriend to remove Hyman’s belongings if he did not pay her portion of the rent.
But the landlord, identified by the Ynet news outlet as Aaron Reiss, denied the allegation and claimed he made no such demands for the money.
“I share in the sorrow of the dear parents — that their daughter will return safely and whole and as soon as possible,” he told the outlet.
“In essence, there is a whirlwind of shaming here. My tenant and the abducted woman do not owe me a shekel. How did it come to this whole situation? I don’t know. I didn’t ask for money — not from her family and certainly not from her,” Reiss said.
“Her possessions remain. It hasn’t been touched and it won’t be touched,” he added.
When asked if he wanted to apologize, he told Ynet: “For what? For something that didn’t happen?”
Earlier, a furious Allon told Walla: “I am 52 years old, I never thought in my life that I would see such obstinance”
He ripped the landlord for his alleged willingness to remove Hyman’s belongings to the street and seek another tenant while she is held captive by Hamas.
“From the moment the post went up, I receive hundreds of responses that I should give the name of the person. No one is able to understand this stubbornness, meanness and insensitivity,” Allon told Walla.
“I published this so that apartment owners beware of treating other people like this and think twice. … I deliberately did not publish his name and his phone number to give him time to apologize. I do not want to hear from him until Inbar is returned to Israel,” he said.
“One of the terrorists grabbed her and threatened her with a knife,” Allon said, citing accounts from two young men who were with her during the attack.
“One of the guys who was with her attacked the terrorist with a wooden board. They shouted at her to run and she froze and they kidnapped her with a motorcycle,” he told the outlet.
The family learned that Hyman was abducted to Gaza through a video on social media.
“Hamas published a video in which she appears. We were able to identify her by her colored tights and the purple shirt she was wearing when four terrorists were dragging her and shouting that she should be brought to the military wing of Hamas,” Allon said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people have offered to help the young couple with the payment. The Maccabi Haifa soccer team also has reportedly offered to finance the apartment for a year, Ynet reported.
“We have enough offers for donations to pay the rent two thousand months ahead,” Mordi Allon told the outlet, adding that an attorney representing the boyfriend is handling the matter and ordered the landlord not to touch Hyman’s belongings.
“I don’t have time to mess with him, there are more important things than a greedy landlord. We need to get her home,” he said.
“Many people said they were shaking in front of the keyboard when they saw this. … I don’t know how it feels for him to get up this morning and to find out that he is the most hated man in the country,” Allon added.