Shimon Shalev of Alonei HaBashan, the settlement’s security coordinator and a member of the Golan rescue unit, speaks in a Heritage Ministry and Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites project about his son Shahar, who was killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014. The interview is part of the “Documentation of Veterans and Founders of Settlement” initiative, which includes hundreds of interviews meant to preserve the story of settlement across Israel for future generations.
The project was filmed in the Jordan Valley, Judea, Samaria, Binyamin, the Golan Heights, and the Galilee by Moradi Kreshner and Noam Damski. Shalev says Shahar was his third child, born and raised in Alonei HaBashan, a lively and popular boy who wanted to “go as far as possible” when he chose his path in eighth grade. He studied at Yeshivat Chitzim in Itamar, where, he says, he received support and was able to complete a high school matriculation certificate despite difficulties.
Shalev recounts that after another year and a half in a pre-army program, Shahar enlisted in the Paratroopers reconnaissance battalion and excelled in everything he did. During Operation Protective Edge, an explosive device was triggered against his unit, where Shahar served as the combat engineer and lead-squad commander. The blast killed the platoon commander and two other soldiers, wounded 18 more, and left Shahar critically injured. He later died of his wounds.
Shalev says he hoped to bury his son in the settlement where he grew up, but Alonei HaBashan has no cemetery and no zoning plan. The local council chief said he would approve a burial site if land up to 200 meters outside the settlement could be found, but none was found, so Shahar was buried in Hispin. The funeral began on the settlement’s large lawn and continued to the cemetery in Hispin, which Shalev calls the largest funeral ever held in the Golan. He says the family’s guiding principle is that Shahar’s death does not mean they must stop living, and that they promised him they would continue as they were.
