Funeral held for soldier Zvi Feldman, whose body was recovered from Syria after 43 years

Hundreds gather in the Holon military cemetery to pay their respects to Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, whose body was recently recovered from Syria and returned to Israel for burial almost 43 years after he went missing during the First Lebanon War.

The funeral begins with Feldman’s brothers, Yitzhak and Shlomo, reciting Kaddish, the Jewish mourners’ prayer.

His sister Anat eulogizes him, recalling the day he was called up to the front lines, and the hope she had clung to that he was still alive.

“The long journey of my life as the sister of a missing soldier began that Saturday, when they came to draft Itzik [into reserves] and you said to Itzik: ‘Don’t be afraid of the battle, it will be okay,'” Anat recalled of her long-absent brother.

“The next day, you and I were in uniform and headed south. Me, a conscripted soldier, and you, called up to reserves.”

She says that after her brother vanished, the IDF wanted to release her from the remainder of her service, but she refused. “I wanted you to be proud of me,” she says.

“My beloved brother Zvika, you returned to us, to the homeland you loved so much. You are being buried as a warrior who died defending the Land of Israel and our people,” says Anat. “I am so proud of you.”