Girl suffering from rare syndrome volunteers for IDF service
Shir Cohen, 18-year-old student at Aderet pre-army program, volunteered for IDF service despite facial deformity caused by rare syndrome; marching in Masa 70 project, she says, 'There's no reason carrying on life all as usual while of my friends are contributing to the country'; Masa 70 participants to march simultaneously from Tel Hai in north, Eilat in south and converge on Jerusalem's Western Wall before Independence Day.
Shir Cohen, 18, a student of the coed Aderet pre-army preparatory program in the Ella Valley south of Beit Shemesh, suffers from a rare condition that caused her face to be deformed, but insisted on fighting to enlist in the IDF despite her hardships.
"It was important for me to enlist," she said. "There's no reason carrying on life as usual while all of my friends are contributing to the country."
Cohen was also a participant in Masa 70, a Keren Hayesod-sponsored project seeing two marches leave Tel Hai in the north and Eilat in the south simultaneously, to meet in Jerusalem's Western Wall just before Israel's 70th Independence Day.
Some 300 cadets began their march Thursday from the army's officer training school, known colloquially as Bahad 1, to Mitzpe Ramon. Cohen—born to a religious family in the settlement of Efrat and later going off the derech—marched alongside her parents.
The young woman insisted on volunteering for army service, and was assigned the role of a computer system infrastructure administrator in the Computer Service Directorate. "I only have a medical condition," she explained. "There's no real reason for me not to enlist."
She considered it every woman's duty to make a significant contribution to the country. "Even if they had denied my request to volunteer, I would have asked for national service," she added. "Equal rights are very important to me and so I, as a woman, wanted to serve in a meaningful capacity."
The syndrome that Cohen suffers from, which affects her facial features, has no other medical implications.
'I have to prove I'm 'okay' more than others'
Cohen further expounded that, "This thing has impacted the way I see the world and has changed it. I need, more than others, to prove that I'm 'okay,' that my brain functions, that's I'm not stupid.
"It doesn't mean I can't be a happy person, or that I don't have a lot of friends and it certainly doesn't mean I can't study, enlist and start a family."
Despite no longer being religious, Cohen said she had "the utmost respect for religion and Judaism" and considered them "important values."
She explained, however, that during her life she had "many quandaries that led to the realization it was no longer my path to tread."
Speaking about her parents, she said, "They love me and have always supported me. Thanks to them, it's much easier for me to live in peace and happiness with this syndrome."
With the split between religious and secular populations in Israel worsening, Cohen divulged her reason for signing up to the coed pre-army program. "It's important to know how to bridge everyone's gaps," she said. "Religious and secular, left-wingers and right-wingers—we all live in the program together, in peace and mutual consideration—and I think that's the driving force behind all coed programs."
President Rivlin starts Masa 70: 'A birthday present to the country and its society'
President Reuven Rivlin started the Masa 70 race in Tel Hai last week. "This journey was intended for marching, speaking and connecting," he said, adding, "It's a birthday present for the country and—if I may be so bold—to the entire Israeli society."
"This is the correct way to get acquainted with Israel's land and its people—to climb the mountains, cross the valleys, march shoulder to shoulder and just talk. It is in these days of splits, divisions and polarization that we should march together. See you in Jerusalem in seven weeks' time," he concluded.
The march's starting event, held at Tel Hai's historic Roaring Lion Monument, began with a photo showcasing Tel Hai's fighting men and women, reenacted by students of the Tavor pre-army program dressed in period garb and carrying ancient weapons.
The event was attended by some 1,000 participants, including students from the Tel-Hai Academic College, Givati Brigade soldiers, girls performing national service, pupils, members of youth movements and representatives from bereaved families.
Rivlin gave the march's flag to descendants of soldiers who participated in the 1948 battles around Tel Hai and later started the march, with participants marching in the first portion through Kiryat Shmona and terminating at the Yiftah kibbutz.
Simultaneously with the northern region event, a similar event was held the same morning in the south. The starting event took place near Eilat's Ink Flag statue and began with a reenactment of the raising of the famed ink flag, signed by 70 soldiers who fought in Israel's War of Independence—some of whom participated in Operation Uvda to capture Eilat during the same war.
The flag arrived to the ceremony by sea from the Taba border crossing—the southernmost point in Israel—carried by two Israeli Navy Dabur-class patrol boats, and was handed over from army and veteran representatives to the younger generation.
Students of the Hatzeva pre-army program then reenacted the raising of the ink flag over Eilat.