In video, the siblings of fallen soldiers

Nine a half months after the start of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge and a few days before this year’s Remembrance Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism, a new music clip memorializes the 67 IDF soldiers and officers who fell in the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

The song, “My Brother,” sung by Moshe Peretz and written by Doron Medalie, focuses on the experiences and emotions of the bereaved siblings of the fallen. The video, produced by the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth, features many of those brothers and sisters, who recently travelled from their homes throughout the country to the border with Gaza for the clip’s filming.

The video shows scenery from the border area, as well as shots of Peretz together with the large group of siblings, who range from young children all the way to middle-aged adults. The most moving aspect of the clip are the many split-screen shots that show images of siblings next to photos of their dead brothers.

The song’s lyrics speak of how a fallen brother’s blood runs in his siblings’ veins, and how their hearts beat as one. They speak of how the siblings miss their brother and wonder where he is now. Mostly, the song is about how much the bereaved siblings love their brother.

“The words and the melody…the melody is slow and sad. It all breaks your heart,” said 13-year-old Rotem in a segment produced by Israel Channel 10 News about the making of the music video.

“In the middle of the song a picture of him popped into my head,” said the boy about his brother Second Lt. Bar Rahav, a 21-year-old IDF combat engineer who was killed last July 29 by an antitank missile fired at a paratrooper position.

Rotem’s sister Ron, 15, said she thought that the song and video’s focus on the bereaved siblings experience was important.

“A lot of stuff deals with the parents, but now they are showing the side of the siblings. Not everyone sees how the younger siblings feel, however now people will know and they’ll be more aware of it,” she said.

Shai, the teenage sister of 19-year-old Sergeant Erez Sagi, who was killed July 28 when terrorists attempted to infiltrate Israel using a tunnel which lead from the Gaza Strip to Kibbutz Nahal Oz, said she felt comforted to be around others who could identify with her pain.

‘They [the fallen] are not just some person that gets spoken about for a month and that’s it. They were really someone…You don’t have to be the president of the United States of the prime minister so that people will remember you’

“To know that everyone here is in your situation, that they feel as you do, is good—because no one else can understand,” she said.

Some of the adult participants, like Vered, sister of Staff Sergeant Eliav Kahlon, 22, who was killed July 28 in a mortar attack from Gaza on the Eshkol Region, spoke of how difficult the upcoming Memorial Day will be. The transition from being someone looking on as others grieve to being a bereaved sibling oneself is sharp, she said.

Young Rotem wants the video to send a message to the nation.

“They [the fallen] are not just some person that gets spoken about for a month and that’s it. They were really someone…You don’t have to be the president of the United States of the prime minister so that people will remember you,” he said.

Sagi’s sisters Shai and Noam want people to remember not only their fallen brother, but also the war itself and its consequences.

“People shouldn’t forget what happened here last summer, what it caused,” Noam said.

“I don’t believe that anyone will forget Protective Edge, but I believe that no one learned from it. That really bothers me,” said her sister.