At the funeral for Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that retrieving the bodies of IDF soldiers killed in battle touches the deepest part of Israeli and Jewish identity.
“I got chills when I heard that Zachary was back home, we’ve been waiting for this for 37 years,” he says at the funeral at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery.
“Bringing our sons back home touches the deepest part of our identity as Jews and Israelis,” he says. “In the name of these values, and out of love for Israel, Zachary went to war.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogizes Zachary Baumel, who went missing at the Battle of Sultan Yacub in 1982, at the funeral Mount Herzl Military cemetery in Jerusalem on April 4, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
In his remarks, Netanyahu says that he personally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his help finding the remains of Israeli soldiers missing in Syria two years ago.
“When I asked him to help us bring our boys home, he immediately instructed his people to begin,” he says. “I have followed the search personally, and the IDF has been in contact with the Russian military about it.”
Baumel’s remains were returned to Israel yesterday, nearly 37 years after he went missing in the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub against Syrian forces.
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