Suleiman, Zion (Tzioni)
Son of Mazal and Yitzhak, was born in 1925 in Rishon Letzion. He finished elementary school, and while he was still debating whether to continue his studies or go to kibbutz training for a pioneering achievement, he was rescued from his father at the age of 16 and assigned to help his mother with her livelihood. He began to work in the building and at the same time was active in sports and the Haganah, and in the evenings he wore khaki and left the house, sometimes missing for several days, and only later did the family learn that he was spending some time in military training somewhere in the kibbutzim In 1946, he completed a course for squad commanders and since then has been a mentor and liked his students. In December 1947, at the outbreak of the War of Independence after the UN General Assembly decided to partition the country, he became a full-time member of the Givati Brigade. Zion participated in the activities of his battalion in defending the JNF House near Beit Dagon, securing transportation from Rehovot to the south, breaking the siege over the village of Uriya, purifying rioters’ possessions, and retaliating (Gazza, Abu Sukair and others). After a few years of underground activity, he found satisfaction in the revelation of the Hebrew force in the War of Independence and said: “I am glad that we have already broken the restraint. In his letters he would reassure his mother that everything was in order: “There is nothing, Mother, we will suffer, but for future generations it will be good.” And his friends would say: “I no longer believe in miracles, my Lev tells me that I will fall, but first I want to see our victory.” But this desire was not fulfilled. On the 17th of Adar 2, 5708 (March 28, 1948), an armored vehicle returned from Gedera to Tel Nof. Members of a gang from Maghar seized the school next to the junction, placed an electric mine on the road leading to Tel Nof and operated it when the armored vehicle passed. The explosion caused the fire to explode and the intense fire from the school building made it impossible to access it. That night, the Givati fighters raided the school and blew it up, and the next day the bodies of the burned armored personnel were rescued. Zion was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Rehovot.
