“No Mother Should Be Alone”: How Michal Asban Fights for Support for Wounded Soldiers' Mothers

In the middle of May, two years ago, Michal Asban (58), a resident of Beit El and a mother of eight, received a phone call that turned her world upside down.

"Are you Yotam's mother?" asked the voice on the other end of the line. Asban answered in the affirmative with concern, because she knew her son was in Gaza. When she asked what happened, silence fell on the other side of the line. "I went into a state of terror. And then a female voice said: 'Hello, I am a nurse in the intensive care unit at Shaare Zedek, your son Yotam is here, come to the hospital immediately.' I collapsed. I had no one to call, so I called my eldest son, who serves as a battalion commander and had not been available for half a year because he was in combat. By a miracle of life, he answered. I asked him what happened to Yotam. He checked and said: 'There was a friendly fire incident involving armor and paratroopers in Jabalia. Say thank you that you have a child.' It turns out Yotam suffered a severe head injury."

Michal and her husband flew to the hospital, where doctors were waiting for them at the entrance and informed them of the severity of the injury and the fact that Yotam had been in surgery for hours. "They didn't know if he would wake up. We also didn't know which way it was going, he could have remained in a vegetative state. For eight days I was in uncertainty."

But inside this nightmare, Michal noticed that in every room there was a wounded soldier and a mother crying by his bedside. "I vowed that if my child recovered even a little, I would support these mothers, and they would not remain alone."

In addition to her work at the Ministry of Education, Michal works in jewelry making. When Yotam began to recover, she used to go between the mothers and distribute jewelry she had made. When Yotam was transferred to Sheba Hospital, she continued this habit, but could not distribute to all the mothers because she did not have enough money to fund the expensive materials.

250 bracelets as a gift

But then, someone who saw what she was doing decided to fund the materials so she could provide comfort to more mothers. Thus, she created jewelry that was given to 250 mothers of wounded soldiers.

Asban realized that jewelry is nice, but it does not address the needs of the mothers. She organized an event with therapy workshops, art, a place for connection and support.

"I am a working person and I didn't think to continue beyond this one-time day, but at the event itself I realized that I hadn't grasped the event. I saw mothers singing with a guitar, crying and hugging each other without prior acquaintance."

That evening, Asban vowed that she would not stop the activity. With the help of Orna Shapira, also a mother of a wounded soldier, she established "Ima Lavia" (Lioness Mother) - a forum that brings together about 600 mothers of wounded soldiers, and they went out to fight. "The state took our son to battle, but when he was wounded it does not see us. Someone raised this hero, he didn't grow up in the forest, someone educated him to be a hero. I couldn't understand why when this hero almost dies, his mother is left without support.

"I receive inquiries from mothers 24/7. I sent 144 mothers on five trips, with philanthropic support. I never understood what a wounded soldier was until my son was wounded. It is very difficult when you are in the hospital for half a year and you have nothing to eat, you have no salary because you are not working.

"The parents were quite abandoned. No organization is willing to help us. We turned to all the organizations and I ask - who is responsible for the hero's mother? Is this what she deserves? I decided that instead of sitting and crying, I would take care of the mothers of the wounded.

"I even left my job for this. I spoke with countless ministers and Knesset members. It didn't move anyone. For two years we tried to talk to the Minister of Defense and we didn't succeed. Only ministers Sofer, Kish, and Strock reached out, and also Yaffa Ben-David from the Teachers' Union and the New York Federation helped us. But the main weight of the association's existence falls on donations from good people."

"People don't understand what a wounded soldier is. The doctors told Yotam that there are two possibilities for his injury: death or an open miracle, and he is a miracle. He is getting married in a month. This is our happy ending, but it does not diminish the difficulty we have gone through in the last two years. The mother of the wounded also has scars on her soul and she deserves support."

In June of this year, the Mor-Yosef Committee for the Rehabilitation of Wounded IDF and Security Forces, which was appointed to provide a national response for the treatment and rehabilitation of wounded IDF and security forces, submitted its conclusions. Among other things, it recommended improving and expanding rehabilitation services, strengthening the treatment of mental injuries and post-trauma, and establishing a national authority for rehabilitation within the Ministry of Defense.

“There is no logic in the law”

In July 2026, the government approved the committee's recommendations and began implementing them - but Michal is not satisfied. "Every law we fought for is only from the day the law is passed onwards, and not retroactively. That is, anyone who was wounded until the determining date is not eligible. There is no logic here. Mothers of soldiers from the same campaign - some are eligible and some are not. It is a failure," she says with anger.

So what's next? The struggle for the implementation of the committee's recommendations from the beginning of the campaign is not over - but Asban is already thinking ahead: "I have a dream: that there will be a place where we can give mothers support, something like a 'Fighter's Mother House', where they can cry in peace or paint."