Itzik Saidian's personal trauma instantly became a national trauma • Guri Alfi, Ziv Shilon, Titi, Yonatan Barak and many others expressed their hard feelings
Tragedy at the
beginning of
Remembrance Day:
Itzik Saidian, a 26-year-old IDF invalid suffering from post-trauma from Operation Resilient Cliff, set himself on fire yesterday (Monday) in front of the offices of the Ministry of Defense's Rehabilitation Department in Petah Tikva Body parts.
The tragic act provoked a wave of reactions on the net, including from celebrities who responded to the issue with charged statuses.
"I just can not believe it!", Ziv Shilon opened the post he wrote today (Tuesday) from the bottom of his heart about Saidian's tragedy.
"I have not known Itzik for so long, but I know how much he fought to get treatment, how much he wanted to fit in and how much I fell in love with him at first sight. We have not talked too many times since the project, he is not a guy who looks or externalizes.
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A post shared by Ziv Shilon (@zivshilon)
"Something terrible, terrible, terrible happened today. I receive this news like an arrow in my heart. I go out on the balcony and can't breathe. From the little I knew Itzik he did not do it for himself but for his wounded, post-traumatic brothers - the ones they don't see.
"Hope God, I hope a miracle will happen. Two days before Remembrance Day, just not caught. All those involved in this can not happen we must not happen! There must be a deep reform that will change reality, God forbid I blame no one in the terrible case but there must be a solution Other than those who fought in battles, who saw blood, who experienced in their flesh! "
Shilon's shocking post has garnered thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.
"Sad, just sad. It's heartbreaking," wrote Titi Ainao.
Shilon, who served as an officer in the Givati Brigade and was wounded in operational activities in the Gaza Strip in 2012, also addressed the issue in a speech he gave this morning at the IDC Herzliya Memorial Day ceremony: "There are those who returned physically but not mentally.
"I came back but there are those who did not, and there are those who returned in body but not in mind. Yesterday we saw living testimony to those who walk among us, alive but dead and it is not only the responsibility of the government and not only the rehabilitation department - but all of us. "As partners, as owners of places, to know that there are people among us whose heads, souls and hearts were left in battles just like those who unfortunately did not return from there. For all of us we must sanctify this country every day - and them, in their way and will."
Guri Alfi addressed the issue in a heartbreaking Instagram post as well.
"Itzik Saidian. I have no words. I just do not. My heart is broken," Guri Alfi wrote in a post that gained thousands of likes in a short time.
"Amen and recover and you will see good days and justice and love and a hug and you will find comfort," he wrote, and like Shilon he concluded with a statement:
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A post shared by Gur Alfi Aharon (@alfiguri)
Stand-up comedian Yonatan Barak also made an angry post about the failure that led to the tragic act and wrote: "They cut his allowance in half, did not approve of medical cannabis, slammed all the doors on him. "The State of Israel ignores combat casualties, Holocaust survivors, at-risk youth and abused women. There is no money for them."
Barak signed the post with the words: "He deserved more. We all deserve more."
• "Burnt Protest": Battle fighters are considering going out to demonstrate at the end of Memorial Day
• Itzik Saidian's brother: "He saw terrible things and no one commented"
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A post shared by (@barakjon)
