(JTA) — The husband of Dafna Meir, the mother of six who was stabbed to death in her home while fighting off a Palestinian assailant in order to protect her children, called on Jews and Palestinians to “look for what unites us.” Natan Meir spoke Thursday, Jan. 21 with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who paid a condolence visit to the family home in the West Bank settlement of Otniel, where his wife was stabbed to death Jan. 17 by a Palestinian teen who was captured two days later and reportedly confessed to the murder. “The message I want to spread … is to stop sharpening swords, and look for what unites us,” Meir told Rivlin. “We know well the hatred, enough of this. The true solution is love. I talk with my children each night, and I have not heard from them one word of hatred.” Rivlin told Meir: “Your words go straight to the heart and reverberate around the whole country. These words should guide us all.”

“Dafna saw each and every one as a person, a human being, and learned Arabic in order to better care for her fellow man,” Meir said. “Dafna’s loss is both personal and communal. I hope that her sacrifice will be remembered for her kindness to others. She believed, as we do, that love is so much more powerful than hate.”