Phoebe arrived at the military cemetery with a four-month-old glow, and showed him her brother's gravestone • "My son will know my brother in every way - there will be a connection between them without knowing"

Among the bereaved families who came to Mount Herzl Military Cemetery prior to the decision to prevent families from arriving, Phoebe Cohen's image stood out. She arrived with Zohar, her four-month-old baby son, named after her brother. In 2011, Sgt. Zohar Cohen fell during his military service, and when his eldest son was born, she decided to name him. 

Pennants were placed on space graves in the military cemeteries // Photo: Newsenders

Phoebe went Friday to the grave of her late brother in the freezing mountain of Jerusalem. She placed her infant son on the tombstone of her brother, engraved with the stone of his name and personal details. 

"It was very important for me to go to my brother's grave and take my son Zohar with me so he could grow up and know that my brother was guarding him from above," said 38-year-old Cohen, who lives in the Geva Binyamin settlement near Jerusalem. "My son will know my brother Zohar in every way possible, and as he grows we will tell him who was Zohar. They will have a connection even without really knowing it. I am the biggest sister in the family, and my brother Zohar is the smallest and really my half. 

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Cohen had trouble recovering from the moment of separation. "When he left, I felt part of me went with him. Four months ago, my oldest son was born and at first I was rather hesitant to call him my fallen brother's name, because they say it is forbidden, but it was a kind of force. I felt my brother was with me, too. My goal is for my son to grow up in my brother's memory, who was an introvert and always helped everyone. " 

As for the decision to prevent the bereaved families from arriving at the graves that fall on Memorial Day, it is divided. "On the one hand," she agrees, "I understand the decision that thousands of people, who go together to the cemetery, is a place that could lead to infection, but I think they could have allowed nuclear families to go up to the grave and keep their spaces, as they would go elsewhere. It's hard not to be with him on Memorial Day, so we came Friday.