After Staff Sgt. Gary Zolat of Afula was killed in battle in Gaza, his younger brother, Pvt. O, made a decision: He would enlist in the same IDF brigade.
On Wednesday, the 18-year-old was sworn in at the Western Wall in Jerusalem alongside other soldiers from the Kfir Brigade, as his family watched with pride and emotion.
“I am the youngest in the family and the first who was born and raised in Israel,” O said. “My parents and sisters immigrated to Israel from India about 20 years ago. We grew up in a Zionist, values-driven and religious home, and our parents educated us to love the country, love God and love people.”
Gary was his older brother by about four years. “We were very close. I admired him,” O said. “Especially after his beret march, when I found out he was a fighter in the reconnaissance unit. If before that I held him in 100% esteem, from that moment I held him in 1,000% esteem.”
O said he had not originally been focused on military service. Gary’s death changed that. “After the tragedy, I understood that so many people had fallen and were sacrificing their lives for us. It made me want to enlist,” he said.
At first, he considered joining a different unit. “I didn’t want people to know I was a bereaved brother and keep talking to me about it, or make things easier for me because of it,” he said. “I wanted to do meaningful combat service like everyone else, without discounts, exactly as Gary did.”
The idea of joining Kfir came from his parents. At first, O hesitated. Then, at the military induction center, a Kfir officer recognized him as Gary’s brother and spoke to him about the brigade. “That strengthened my desire to continue in the path of my heroic brother,” he said.
“My parents are happy and proud that I am in the Kfir Brigade,” O said. “I feel that I am walking in my brother’s path, and I hope he is proud of me. I pray that all the soldiers protect themselves and return home safe and sound.”
His sister, Tiferet, 25, said the ceremony was deeply moving. “O didn’t tell any of his friends that he was a bereaved brother. They found out only at the ceremony,” she said. “He wanted to be treated like every other soldier and not be given any breaks. When they found out, they lifted him into the air together with Gary’s flag.”
It was the family’s second time at such a ceremony. “Only this time it was different, because we felt Gary’s absence,” Tiferet said. “But the pride was the same, because we have a brother who is a fighter.”
She ended with the sentence that, she said, best described Gary: “For the sake of others, fears do not exist.”
Afula Mayor Avi Elkabetz said the Zolat family represents “the beautiful face of Israel and of Afula in particular,” noting that the city has adopted the Kfir Brigade and views the commemoration of fallen soldiers as “an educational mission of the highest order.”