Abe Ezekowitz 1956 - 2017

I've debated over the past number of months since Abe's passing about weather I should write this and post it on my site or not. I'll explain why shortly.

Abe was an online friend of mine for quite a number of years, we met through mutual friends on yahoo chat in 2006 and quickly became friends. As you can probably guess from his surname, Abe is of the Jewish faith.

We would chat on an almost daily basis for quite a number of years. Abe introduced me to the Linux operating system, which I still use on all my computers to this day. Something of which I am eternally grateful to him for as it's a wonderful piece of software to use.

I was able to talk to Abe about almost anything and as it turned out our political views were quite similar. Well for the most part they were. The only thing we disagreed about was the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. Abe deeply supported Israel. Our falling out happened after I criticised how the IDF behaved in the 2012 incursion into Gaza. Abe wrongly accused me of being anti-Semitic for criticising the IDF. I don't have any problems with people who are of the Jewish faith, but I'm not a fan of the current Israeli government. In my eyes, it's possible to criticise the Israeli government without being an anti-Semite, sadly some people don't agree with this.

I feel bad our friendship ended over that and I did try to mend it a couple of years ago, but Abe ignored me. I don't know if this memorial would be welcomed by his wife / family or cause them offence. I hope it doesn't offend them as it's not what I'm trying to do here and the niggling doubt is the reason I've held off posting this until now. If someone who was close to Abe has read this and wants me to take this down, my e-mail is on the contact page.

I was gutted when I saw the message posted on Facebook last year and his death came a mere 12 hours after my good friend Amber passed away. I honestly don't know what to make of that.