Rivlin to bereaved IDF families: We hear you

Professor Simcha Goldin, who lost his son Hadar during the 2014 operation Protective Edge, pitched a protest tent outside the official ceremony on Mount Herzel.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Prof. Simcha Goldin (L) with a shirt calling for the return of his son's remains to burial in Israel with President Reuven Rivlin (R) (photo credit: MARK NEYMAN / GPO)
Prof. Simcha Goldin (L) with a shirt calling for the return of his son's remains to burial in Israel with President Reuven Rivlin (R)
(photo credit: MARK NEYMAN / GPO)
President Reuven Rivlin met with the father of the late IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, Professor Simcha Coldin, as part of his participation in a Thursday memorial service to those who died during the 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict, also known as Operation Protective Edge.
"In Operation Protective Edge we were fighting for our sanity, for our daily routines," Rivling said during his address, "it was a moral, just war by a sovereign country that cherishes life, defending its citizens."
Goldin pitched a protest tent facing Mount Herzel, where the event was held, to voice his disagreement with the official ceremony and current Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Goldin family publicly said many times they support Israel taking a tough approach to bring home their son's body for a Jewish burial.
“It is so difficult to hold this ceremony when it is so strongly based on the wish to sit beside you," Rivlin told the families of those who died, "the distance is difficult. But, nevertheless, we hear you and you hear us. We are together, via screens, in each other’s hearts.”
Screens were used because of the coronavirus, which was also why the families of the deceased were unable to attend.
   
Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that the IDF soldiers who died during Operation Protective Edge, which he commanded as the IDF chief of staff, left those who are alive with the task “of being worthy to them.”
He addressed all parties and asked them “to walk in their light” and to “be radical in our unity.”
“The state of Israel has no interests in the Gaza Strip,” he said, noting that Israel will not stop fighting until “we get back our sons who remained in Gaza," referring to Oron Shaul, Hadar Goldin, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.
IDF soldiers Shaul and Goldin were killed during the 2014 conflict and it is believed their remains are being kept in the Gaza Strip to be used in a future deal in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Mengistu is an Ethiopian-Israeli who entered the Gaza Strip and is believed to be held captive there. This is also what happened to al-Sayed.
Gantz went on to say that if “the other side” does not understand this, “we will make sure they understand.”