Ben Yehudit and Yossi. He was born on the 9th of Tishrei 5742 (October 9, 1981) in the community of Karnit in the Misgav Regional Council. Ben was born after two daughters. When he was drafted on March 16, 2000, he began his training course in the Engineering Division. The days were the days of terror of the al-Aqsa intifada – the events of “tides and tides”, and Ben did most of his service in the territories. Most of the operational activity was in the city, between the houses and among the residents. This is where the great conflict between the son of a military man and a patriot, who knows that the work must be done, and his values and moral principles is expressed. His teammates say that Ben was their conscience, and that when he was a good soldier and did all the tasks he was assigned, he found it difficult to cope with the interference in the lives of the residents. “Ben was characterized by a developed sense of justice,” relates Yair, his teammate. He cared about things we usually chant and say, ‘Well, well, that’s how it is.’ He would stop and say, ‘Wait a minute, but why?’ “Ben’s family accompanied him throughout the military journey, visited him whenever possible, and was greeted by him with great love and a great hug, though not much to share with them. A warm connection was created between the family and the members of Ben’s team – his friends heart and soul: “When we came to visit him, we brought food to an entire battalion, not to the crew. The soldiers always laughed at us but ate … “Yossi remembered when Ben was on vacation from the army, he would take a nap and immediately the friends would gather around him on the balcony of his parents’ house and go on long conversations into the night, “You do not know that, but you were an angel to me … You are a charming, modest person. The same role model, who respects everyone so much … “After he was discharged from the army, Ben went to exerciseDreams and travel the world. It seems that this was his way of unloading the tension that had accumulated during his years of service, and to feel independence. The first place to reach was “Camino de Sant Diago” in Spain – through the pilgrims. For a thousand miles Ben took a walk, enjoying the scenery and the challenge, but was especially impressed by the encounter with the people. The connection and conversation with people were very important to him, and during the journey he connected with a group of young people from all over the world. Says Yehudit: “Anyone who knew Ben felt he had found a friend for life.” Everywhere he went, Ben would integrate into the way people lived; On one of his trips in Italy he worked unpaid on a farm, and on another trip, in Mongolia, he stayed a few more days to work with the locals. He could easily connect with strangers, even without their knowledge of their language. “It was easy for people to connect to it because of its special character,” Yehudit explains. “Ben was frank, real, and his face glowed with light.” During Ben’s trip to India, he met Abasha, a childhood friend, and together they decided to make a horse trip on the Mongolian steppes. They bought an English-Mongolian dictionary so that they could communicate with the locals, and purchased two horses for horseback riding. For forty-five days the journey of survival continued; Every few days they arrived at the settlement, bought basic necessities, and continued on their way. They lived in nature, and their main nourishment was bread they inhaled on their own. Because of the conditions in the area, they rarely communicated with their families. It was a journey to the soul, during which a son underwent a change and developed spiritually. This is evidenced by what he wrote in the travel diary: “… We pass through a winding road, between forests, climbing and descending mountains and hills, and in some places the slopes were so sharp that we had to get down from the horses and lead them. Things have worked out … This trip taught me a lot about simplicity … You can live from nothing … “When Ben returned to Israel, he saw the change. He disliked materialism, was interested only in profound spiritual matters, and in an avid lover of flesh became vegetarian. His love for nature became a deep ecological awareness, and he joined Greenpeace. “The absurdities and contradictions in the world were very disturbing to him,” said Salo, a friend. “His whole approach to what was going on around him was very caring, and when he came in the door, light just came in the door.” Ben successfully completed a course for tour guides and trips abroad and among his other plans, he planned to set up a horse riding company with his friend Avsha. In his last year he lived in Tel Aviv and worked at a branch of the tomato pizza. Sarah, one of his friends, relates that once, when she visited him at work, Homeless suddenly entered – without shoes and torn clothes. Ben looked at the man, gave him a hot pizza, and after leaving, paid for the pizza. “So I understood,” Sarah wrote, “what is Zionism in you and it showed me that there are people like you who really exist in this world …” In July 2006, Ben finished the “Tel Aviv Chapter” and returned to live in the cornet. The Second Lebanon War, which broke out on July 12, caught him in the midst of preparations for a horse-riding campaign for Trans-Israel. “On one of the first days of the war, a missile fell on a house in southern Lebanon that was full of soldiers,” Yehudit recalls. “Two weeks after the outbreak of the war, Ben received an” order eight “and was drafted into reserve duty. Before going to Lebanon, he returned home for two days. Yehudit says that she noticed that something about him was different, that the smiling child was always too serious, even sad, but did not have time to find out about it before he and Yossi left Afula on his way to Lebanon. “We took him down, and I did not want to say good-byeBen was killed in a battle in Lebanon on August 9, 2006, at the age of 24. At 13:30, an anti-tank missile hit Hezbollah in the building where he was And his friends in the village of Debel, in the eastern sector. The building collapsed, Ben was seriously wounded, the rescue was delayed, and five hours later, three hundred meters from the Israeli border, he died.
