From Family of slain soldier rages at conference for researcher he was escorting in Lebanon
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A memorial conference for a researcher who was killed after entering southern Lebanon last month is interrupted by the family of a soldier who was killed alongside him. They angrily demand their son’s sacrifice also be acknowledged.
Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Gur Kehati, 20, was killed during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives on November 20, while in southern Lebanon alongside Zeev Erlich, 71, who was in IDF uniform and with a senior officer, but apparently had no official authorization from the army to be in Lebanon, where he was reportedly attempting to study antiquities.
משפחתו של גור קהתי הגיעה לכנס שאורגן על ידי מועצת שומרון לזכר ז'אבו ארליך והחלה במחאה כשמח"ט שומרון, אריאל גונן, עלה לדבר. pic.twitter.com/NAvAHAbCcn
— Hagar Shezaf (@hagar_shezaf) December 25, 2024
According to Haaretz, the family had asked organizers to hold off on giving a conference until the completion of a military probe into the incident. At least one top military official reportedly pulled out due to the controversy.
“Our son was killed and nobody even bothered to make sure his picture would appear in this shit?” Ron Kehati, Gur Kehati’s dad, tells attendees at the memorial event organized by the Samaria Regional Council, where Erlich lived, throwing an object at a TV. “Did anyone remember him?”
Most participants refuse to respond, though a few people tell Kehati to “be quiet.”
“Don’t tell me to stop,” he yells, walking up to a local brigade commander and Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan, who stand next to the dais. “You don’t understand what you are doing here. What’s the rush to have a conference now? Why? The blood is still not dry.”
According to Haaretz, another attendee tells the family “You said your piece, now go home,” to which Assaf Agmon, Gur Kehati’s grandfather, responds, “Shame on you. Don’t you know what a bereaved father is? You are participating in the murder of my grandson. Go sacrifice your own kid to Molech.”
במהלך האירוע הסב התעמת גם עם אחד המשתתפים שאמר לבני המשפחה ללכת מהמקום. pic.twitter.com/c7oUGVvfhV
— Hagar Shezaf (@hagar_shezaf) December 25, 2024
A video shows others restraining Agmon as a physical altercation nearly breaks out.
Other family members also challenge the participants and hold up posters with pictures of Gur or death notices.
In a statement, the Samaria Regional Council accuses the family of violence, and claims they were joined by leftist activists, accusing Agmon of being a leader of the “extreme left.”
The Times of Israel Community.