Bracelets honor the memory of fallen Givati soldiers
Fox Foundation for the Givati Reconnaissance Unit creates bracelets with sentences symbolizing the fallen troops' legacy.
Liran Binenfeld, the head of the Fox Foundation for the Givati Reconnaissance Unit, told Ynet that "ahead of the one year anniversary to the fall of five of the unit's alumni - Lt.-Col. Dolev Keidar, the reconnaissance battalion commander Maj. Benaya Sarel, 1st.-Lt. Hadar Goldin, Master Sergeant Ohad Shemesh and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni - we decided to prepare bracelets with sentences representing their unique ways."
He said that "these fallen soldiers were exceptional people who left a big hole in many of us. When people wear the bracelet with this sentence, they could remember them and continue their unique way."
Binenfeld explained that "the Givati Reconnaissance battalion is a small and intimate unit. To lose five fighters in one year is a serious blow. Many fighters and alumni found themselves going into Operation Protective Edge with their friends and commanders and coming back without them. And the pain is still fresh."
He went on to say that "we don't stop thinking about them and their way. They will always be part of who we are. The Fox Foundation will continue commemorating the fallen in Protective Edge along with the other fallen from the battalion."
Among the sentences on the bracelets: "Work, don't play around," in memory of Benaya Sarel; "Happiness is the strength to keep going," in memory of Liel Gidoni; "There's always something that can be done," in memory of Hadar Goldin; "Sky is the limit and the derech is derech eretz" (the path to go on is good manners), in memory of Ohad Shemesh; and "Dolev, forever in our hearts," in memory of Dolev Keidar.
The idea for the bracelets, Binenfeld said, came from students at an army prep course who participated in a project to commemorate Hadar Goldin. "They set up a booth at the entrance to the Carmel Market and I saw them handing out bracelets to all of the children. The bracelet had a sentence Hadar believed in written on it. Then we moved this idea forward," he said.
Maj. Benaya Sarel, 1st.-Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni were killed in battle in Rafah on August 1, 2014. Lt.-Col. Dolev Keidar, the Gefen battalion commander at the IDF's officers' school, fell in battle in Nir Am. Master Sergeant Ohad Shemesh, a reserve soldier in Unit 504 (the Human Intelligence Division) and an alumni of the Givati Reconnaissance Unit, fell in battle in Khan Younis.
The Fox Foundation started about ten years ago following the Second Lebanon War. It aims to help the unit's soldiers, alumni and bereaved families.
