Halperin, Bezalel (“Tsali”)

The eldest son of Dov and Shoshana, a veteran of Kibbutz Amir. He was born on November 9, 1947 in the kibbutz. His early childhood was imprinted in the seal of the War of Independence and at the age of eight months he was evacuated from the besieged agriculture together with the rest of the kibbutz members; They went to Kiryat Haim and then to Hadera. He was alert and active, sensitive to the grief of others, and when he grew up he felt a sense of justice. He was always ready to help others, hurt his pain and quarreled when his childish feeling told him that injustice had become a friend. He was the leader of his comrades and they do not remember that he exploited this virtue. He excelled in his studies and did not flaunt his knowledge, which he absorbed from the parents and absorbed from the reading, in which he was absorbed in the search for answers to the questions that were before him. He divided his time between school studies, activities at the youth movement and the movement’s guidance in the “ken” of Hashomer Hatzair, and in every field he stood out in his devotion, his serious attitude, and his entrepreneurial activity. He was pleasant, with a clear, critical mind. His friends saw him as a symbol of honesty and conscience. He would not have accepted any opinion or idea from the Sinai and his views on world and society questions, kibbutz and human relations that he would have conquered by the moral force of the hearts of his listeners both in class, and in the company of his companions – and later among his comrades in arms. Bezalel studied at the educational institution in the Upper Galilee and from the last years of his studies he connected to the branch of the fruit plantation. He loved the work and in agriculture he saw his future. It was possible to rely on him even though he was a boy whose name symbolized the power at work and the responsibility for its execution. He completed his military service in the summer of 1966. After a summer full of picking apples, he was drafted into the IDF in November 1966. As a tank driver who served in the Six Day War and his many letters to his family, The small and insignificant details of the fighters who were about to go into battle were given the expression of alertness, but with the awareness that the necessity was not to be condemned, and that everything that was imposed would be carried out with full devotion and loyalty. Al-Arish in the Jirdi compound, he fought as a tank driver, then went on to the officers’ course and continued The last time in his life was a period of long and uninterrupted testing, a military and human test in which all the qualities of his personality reached maturity and maturity, and the values ​​of the kibbutz and IDF values ​​merged in Bezalel into harmonious perfection. He knew how to impose his authority on his subordinates without creating any barrier between himself and them-and they loved him. He took care of his soldiers and did the “dirty work” with them, even though it was not his job; He would keep himself in guard in any uncomfortable place where a commander was exempt. He and his family were his kibbutz, and he and his family were filled with human warmth, and the many letters and short vacations in the house gave expression to his rich inner world, which looked good and saw everything and everyone with a loving eye. He believed in the future of humanity and in a better world which man has to fulfill. The man of logic was a forerunner of action-yet he could balance his logic with his emotional world. He knew how to take an interest in the kibbutz and the agriculture, and his tours of the fields and branches during vacation hours and the many questions in his letters all derived from one source: love for the landscape and the human landscape of the place. Just as logic and emotion joined him together, they lived in peace and complete contemplation and seriousness with the playful, playful daughter – because he knew how to be cheerful. But while he was in compulsory service, Bezalel was wounded by a sniper bullet in the bitter lake area; He was then busy securing workers and tractors who worked on fortifying the canal line. This is HiAfter an uninterrupted Egyptian activity for weeks – and after a quiet first night, when it seemed that there was some respite. For three days after his injury, Bezalel struggled for his life in the hospital in Be’er Sheva while unconscious and on 28 March 1969 died of his wounds. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in his kibbutz. After his death he was promoted to lieutenant. The commander of his unit wrote to his parents in a letter of condolence: “Your son was wounded by an Egyptian sniper when he was working to secure workers and tractors who fortified the canal line – fortifications and shelters whose main function is to protect human lives. He had been under my command for eight months since he was an officer, and from the very beginning I saw him as a man and a right officer for all that was required of him, but he also examined his responsibility with due consideration and maturity. And I knew that he was able to buy their hearts by worry, direction and leadership But I did not know how great the blow was for them, and he, who was so anxious for them, was hurt, and they seemed to have remained orphaned. Kibbutz Amir published a booklet in his memory entitled “Tzali” on the first anniversary of his death. In a pamphlet that Kibbutz Amir published about Hanania Alpert, who fell in the Six-Day War, there is an article about him.