Saturday, August 16, 2008

Memorial Services for Goldwasser and Regev

It has been a few weeks and this last Friday memorial services were held for both Goldwasser and Regev who were killed in 2006 by Hizbollah. Their bodies were returned earlier this month in an exchange that has angered many in Israel.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Nahariya cemetery on Friday for the unveiling of the gravestone of fallen IDF soldier

Ehud Goldwasser, whose body was returned to Israel by Hizbullah in July.

"Udi was kidnapped from the land of his birth by a terror organization," an inscription on the gravestone read. The date of the return of Goldwasser's body was also inscribed.

The ceremony was attended by Ehud's widow, Karnit, his mother, Mickey, his brothers, Gadi and Yair, and his father, Shlomo, who read the Kaddish (mourner's prayer).

"What else is there to say? Everything has already been said," he said. "You were a hero and you will remain that way," he added. "You are with us all of the time, listening... Illuminate our eyes down the path. We need that."

In a show of solidarity, family members of Eldad Regev, who was kidnapped along with Goldwasser, and the parents of Gilad Schalit, kidnapped one month earlier in June 2006, attended the ceremony.

Members of Regev's reserve unit also attended. They stood by the graveside for a long period after the completion of the ceremony.

Earlier on Friday, a memorial for Regev took place at a Haifa ceremony. "We so hoped you would come back safe, and that you see, feel, and hear what was done on your behalf," Regev's uncle, Michael Helfmend, said. Helfmend noted that Regev was kidnapped just two days after attending a memorial for his mother in 2006.

In Israel they will not be forgotten, and they will be revenged. That I'm sure of.

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