Benjamin Netanyahu hears memories from orphans of Israel’s war dead
Ahead of Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara have met with IDF orphans and a bereaved brother from the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization.
During the emotional meeting, each child talked about his father and the memories that they have.
Photo: Kobi Gideon (GPO)
The widow of Lt.-Col Muhammad Kheir El-Din, who was killed during a special operation in Khan Yunis in 2018, said that at first, it was difficult for her son to hear the word ‘orphan’ but today he looks forward to going to meetings that help him greatly. Prime Minister Netanyahu told her boys, Ahmed and Ram: “Your father was a great hero. It is a great privilege to be the sons of a great hero. Not everyone can say this. I say it to you as someone who is not only familiar with the operation in which he fell but also with other things that I cannot share just yet. This should accompany you throughout your lives – your father was a genuine hero. This is a great privilege, even with the very great pain.”
Iris, the widow of Lt. Shmulik Halfon, who fell in battle during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, said that her son Liad had been interviewed in the past and asked: “What do you miss?” and he had answered: “How can I miss him if I didn’t know him?” Sara Netanyahu told Liad that he carried his father’s genes and that he was a part of him. She added behind each name of a fallen soldier, there was a family, whose stories helped them in getting to know a little about each family.
Prime Minister Netanyahu responded: “It happens that frequently I send men into battle or on very dangerous missions and not even once do I send them there without thinking about you – the families that will pay the price afterwards. It does not prevent me from doing this but it means that when you do so, you always think about the price and do not do so lightly.”
His wife Sara Netanyahu added: “The Prime Minister has always told me, since the 1990s, ‘I do not want any mother to feel what my mother went through and I do not want any wife to go through this’ not over her husband, or a child or a brother. Whoever goes through this, and it is so strong in him, thinks about these things. Then you know that there is someone here who thinks about you and worries about you.”
Participating in the meeting were:
* Nehad, the widow of Lt.-Col Muhammad Kheir El-Din, who was killed in a clash during a special operation in Khan Yunis in 2018, and her sons Ahmed and Ram
* Ami-ad Kahlon, the son of Chief Warrant Officer Rami Kahlon, who fell during Operation Protective Edge in 2014
* Amir Tzuk, the son of Sergeant First Class Micha Tzuk, who fell during an operation in 2008
* Iris, the widow of Lt. Shmulik Halfon, who fell in battle during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and her son Liad
* Hila Ganon, the daughter of Meshar Maor Ganon, who fell in the 2010 Carmel disaster
* Ma’ayan, the widow of Master Sergeant Shlomi Cohen, who fell during routine activity at Rosh Hanikra in 2013, and her daughter Shahar Cohen
* Nitzan Muallem, the daughter of Lt.-Col. Moshe Muallem, who fell in the 1997 helicopters disaster
* Liron Biton, the widow of Meshar Roi Biton, who fell in the 2010 Carmel disaster
that’s what they need now support from their government during these trying times.