Becker, Eric

Son of Ada and Moshe. Born on 17.5.1980 in Jerusalem, brother to Itzik and Nahum. Until 1987, he lived with his family in Beit Shemesh. On 28 July 1998, Arik joined the 603 battalion in the Combat Engineering Corps and during his military service Arik’s commander said he had chosen him as a symbol for the department. “I decided that you would succeed and I trusted you with my eyes closed,” he wrote. On July 27, 2001, Arik was discharged from compulsory service and went on to study for industry and management at the Ariel College preparatory program for academic studies, while improving his matriculation grades in a number of subjects and successfully passing them. In April 2002, he was drafted to the reserve in Negohot in the Jordan Valley, along with his brother Nahum, as commander of a squad in the field of infantry. Two weeks later he was released and hurried to meet a friend who was going abroad and then went to the college to study for the test and help his friends, and he managed to cook them delicacies he loved, and towards the end of the week he came to Adora to visit his parents. On Shabbat morning, 15 Iyar, April 27, 2002, a terrorist squad infiltrated the settlement of Adora, disguised as IDF soldiers and armed with combat equipment, broke into several houses and shot anyone who they came across. Arik woke from sleep to the sound of the shots. He took his personal weapon, which was with him from the reserves, and went to join the emergency squad. Outside, he joined two residents – Danny Shoaf and David Amar – who were already running toward the sound of gunfire. When the three arrived at the house where the terrorists were, they lay on the ground. One of the terrorists came out, and Arik and his friends called him and identified themselves as local residents. As he was dressed in an IDF uniform, they thought in good faith that he was a soldier, and even feared that he would mistakenly identify them as terrorists. “Look out for terrorists in the community,” Arik said to the terrorist, but he drew his weapon and shot Arik. After the long battle, the terrorists retreated, and the daring action of the security squad in the encirclement of the terrorists stopped their descent to the next street and prevented a much larger massacre. During the exchange of fire, Danny was wounded and could not help his friend, but Arik bandaged himself with his shirt. When he woke up, he took care of the other wounded, and rescue forces arrived in the ambulance about forty minutes later, and he was identified as a minor injured because he spoke and bandaged himself, there was no severe bleeding from the outside, and the penetration of the bullet into the chest was not diagnosed as a fatal injury. First Sergeant Arik Becker fell in battle in Adora on 27 April 2002, when he was twenty-two years old. He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Har Hamenuhot in Givat Shaul in Jerusalem. Survived by parents and two brothers. For full memorial, see Hebrew bio.