Israel's forgotten fallen soldiers
Op-ed: Thousands of fighters and commanders who risked their lives for State of Israel for decades are missing from its commemoration lists.
No films will be screened on Channel 33 tonight. Until Monday evening's torch-lighting ceremony, the channel will play sad melodies and screen names. Thousands of names. A first name, a last name, a date of death. The name will appear on the screen for only 2.6 seconds. Only 2.6 seconds and thousands of people will follow the names of Israel's 23,170 fallen soldiers from all times (the official number is 23,169, but over the weekend it was published that one of the soldiers died of a disease).
These are the 2.6 seconds which expropriate the private deceased of the private families, their fallen soldier, in favor of the entire public, in favor of the state. This is also the way the state has chosen to publicly respect Israel's 23,170 fallen soldiers. After 2.6 seconds another name will appear, and then another name – and so on and so forth. Until the list of name comes to an end.
It's unbelievable, but thousands of other names, perhaps even tens of thousands, are worthy of those 2.6 seconds. But they will not be there, the state will not honor their memory and they are not included in the commemoration lists. They are the "deleted" ones.
Lieutenant Colonel Yair ("Jerry") Biberman, my company commander in officers' course, died last week. My squad instructor in that same court, Ofer Divon, passed away several months ago. Two or three days ago I saw a notice for a memorial ceremony on the first anniversary of the death of my recruit base commander. Brigadier-General Yitzhak Zeid.
I didn’t follow the lives of those three men, who touched pieces of my life. I don’t know what they did with their lives, what they went through after leaving the IDF, whether they succeeded or perhaps failed. I do know that they served in the IDF devotedly for decades. After all, one can't reach the ranks of brigadier-general and lieutenant colonel without a long service in uniform. And after completing many years of service, they became, as Yair Stern's song says, "anonymous soldiers. We are without uniform."
The laws and regulations regarding the commemoration of soldiers and members of the security forces are strict, and there are hardly any deviations from them, right or left. If I am not mistaken, these tough laws were enacted during the days of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in order to prevent disrespect for the commemoration.
And so many people are forgotten, and it isn't anyone's fault. For example, person who enlisted in the morning at the induction center and was killed in a road accident on his way home will receive every honor and will be buried in a full military service in a military ceremony, and his name will be commemorated on the list of fallen soldiers.
Meanwhile, a fighter, a commander and a senior officer, who served in the field for many years, participated in dozens and hundreds of life-risking actions, put his life in danger, crossed borders and climbed the ladder of positions and ranks, will be absent from the memorial lists. His name will not appear on Channel 33 on Sunday night (according to regulations, only a major-general, even one who has already completed his military service, is entitled to be buried in a military cemetery).
And so, over the years – and again, it's no one's fault – an absurd has been created and is crying out from between the gravestones: Thousands of people who became famous as war heroes or who operated secretly and out of sight in important secret activities pass away, and at best their senders in the defense establishment remember them with a single bouquet of flowers. No one will remember them apart from their family members. No one will mention them.
It is in the memory of them too, these thousands of "deleted" people, that I will bow my head at the start of the Day of Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel.
