In the video: The families of the abductees block the Begin Darom road near the Kiriya gate/photo: Erez Harel
Shmulik Lev was 8 years old when his father, Lt. Col. Arlozor (Zorik) Lev, commander of the 1st Wing of the Air Force, left on the fourth day of the Yom Kippur War from the Ramat David base to the Port Said area on his last sortie.
On his return from the destination his plane was damaged;
He fell and his burial place is not known to this day.
Jubilee years have passed, and the son Shmulik still hopes that a day will come and the remains of his father, the revered pilot and commander, will be located.
"Fifty years and we don't know what happened to my father. For many years there were question marks," says Shmulik Lev Lavala!, "Over the years they did searches but nothing came up. Every absence and every death is a great pain, but it will be a kind of Closing a circle if there is a grave, a place to climb on it. With us and the other families whose burial place of their loved ones is unknown, the pain is doubled. It's like an open grave waiting for him and with us the wound remains open. When you're a child and you're told he's probably been killed, then you think to yourself that maybe he's alive and continues You stay with this uncertainty for years."
Standing from the left - Noit, Tali, mother - Ofir, Zorik Yaad the baby, second row from the left - Gan, Shmolik (with the ball) Odi/courtesy of the family
The branch for tracing the missing in the IDF, in cooperation with the unit for commemorating the soldier in the family and commemoration division of the Ministry of Defense, works all year round to locate the burial place of these fallen and to place a tombstone on their grave. The day of remembrance for the fallen of Israel's systems whose burial place is unknown is determined by the chief military rabbinate On the 7th of Adar, the day of the birth and death of Moses according to Jewish tradition and the place of his burial is unknown. In the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, a plot was established for the fallen whose burial place is not known, and a memorial wall was erected commemorating their names. Every year, on the 7th of Adar, is held in that plot This is the state ceremony in their memory.
Even today, 7 Bader 2 Tashpad, Shmulik stood next to his mother, Zorik's widow, Tali Lev, who lit a candle in this annual ceremony.
This year, more than in previous years, the ceremony aroused interest, due to the murdered and fallen whose bodies the terrorist organization Hamas has not yet returned to Israel.
Shmulik, today 58 years old, the father of Aral who turns 15 today and Abigail who is 12 years old, remains in the village of Bilo, where his parents were born and is engaged in the field of giant media screens outside the cities. He is the fourth of six children left by Zorik, 40 years old in Nefo. His older brother died of an illness and He has two sisters and two brothers.
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Shmulik the son and Tali the widow of Zorik, Mount Herzl.
March 17, 2024/Courtesy of the family
"Obviously, from our point of view, everything connects to this," adds Lev, "the fact that the fate of the abductees is not prioritized and the world is not changed in a frantic way to bring them is very troubling and shakes us, because we know that such an opportunity will not return. There needs to be a big outcry. There is an opportunity that should not be missed. We blew up Gaza, we dismantled their form, and now what? Let's make a deal! Now is the time. Then the years will pass and there will be no one to talk to.
"Maybe once in my father's case there were opportunities and they were missed.
We need to bring them all home and also locate the dead bodies down to the last one and bring them for burial in Israel.
All of them, and now.
We are with these families in heart and soul.
Understand what they are going through.
We don't turn a blind eye to them and just want this nightmare to end."
More on the same topic:
abducted
Yom Hakkipurim War
Yom Kippur