Family marks 20 years to disappearance of IDF soldier Guy Hever
Mother of missing soldier says she believes her son is still alive and calls on Prime Minister Netanyahu 'to throw all of his weight' behind efforts to get information about Guy's fate; PMO: 'Mission to find and return Guy Hever home continues at all times.'
Hever, a soldier in the Artillery Corps, left his army base in the Golan Heights on the morning of August 17, 1997, carrying his weapon. He has since disappeared without a trace, despite extensive search efforts throughout the years.
Rina Hever, the soldier's mother, explained why she believes her son is still alive. "It hasn't been proven otherwise. The State of Israel sadly has experience (with disappearances). When something happens, the Shin Bet or other security forces have something—a shred of information, a weapon, a dog tag. And here, for the first time, Guy hasn't been found, but neither has the weapon or the dog tag," she said. "It means that unless he was vaporized or taken by someone with superpowers, he's somewhere, and information about it needs to be uncovered."
"Of course they haven't found anything. In light of that, the current head of the Manpower Directorate decided to convene all branches of the army in early September to decide what steps to take next, because obviously we can't continue like this—send a battalion of soldiers out every year and not find anything."
Criticizing the Israeli government for not doing all it can to find her son, Rina argued that "There's no such thing as the prime minister wanting to get information and not getting it. If he threw all of his weight behind the efforts to get information about Guy, he'd get it. It's a matter of deciding to do so. We have no doubt about it."
Hever said she expected that "for the first time after 20 years, the family won't have to lead the search efforts, and the security establishment will have some ideas as well. I expect them to produce some sort of information, but I don't need to advise them on how to do it."
She lamented the fact that "the truly serious search efforts began so many years after he disappeared that the belief was established among the public, and as a result in the media as well, that Guy ran off, killed himself, or was hiding—all sorts of strange theories."
The Prime Minister's Office offered the following response, "The mission to learn of the fate of missing IDF soldiers Guy Hever and return him home continues at all times. The search is conducted by security forces, the Foreign Ministry and the Israel Police.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's representative on the matter of captives and missing persons has been coordinating all of the activities on the matter and maintains contact with the family.
"As part of this activity, over the last year the IDF and civilian rescue units have carried out wide scale search efforts in the area of disappearance in the Golan Heights. The Israel Police has a special team dealing with the matter, while intelligence bodies are operating in other areas.
"In addition, in the coming month the family will travel abroad for a series of meetings to raise awareness to the matter.
"This activity will continue at all times until this important mission is completed."
