One of the Golan settlement veterans: Yoni Ben Ari has passed away

Yoni Ben Ari, one of the veteran settlers of the Golan Heights and a resident of Moshav Nov, passed away today (Sunday). Yoni is the father of Major Hagai Ben Ari, the commander of the Paratrooper reconnaissance unit who was critically wounded in Operation Iron Swords and passed away from his wounds three and a half years later.

Yoni and his wife Hani were among the pioneers of the settlement movement on the Golan Heights. They built their first home in the Hoshniya area in the central Golan, where they met as part of the Keshet settlement core. The two married in 1975 and lived in pioneer conditions in a camp until the permanent structures were built. Later, the family moved to Moshav Nov in the southern Golan, where they raised their eight children and became a central part of the community.

The name of Yoni and his family entered the public consciousness following the severe injury of his son Hagai. On July 21, 2014, during Operation Iron Swords, Hagai was hit in the head by sniper fire in Khan Yunis. Hagai, who was supposed to receive command of the Paratrooper reconnaissance unit, left a family vacation where he was with his wife, Moriya, and their three children, to join his fighters in battle. While he was lying unconscious in the hospital, the then-brigade commander, Colonel Eliezer Toledano, arrived and officially granted him command of the unit at his bedside.

For about four years, Yoni and the family members cared for Hagai in their home in Nov, while he was connected to machines and unconscious, until his passing in January 2017. Throughout the entire period, Yoni stood out for his strength and family leadership.

At Hagai's funeral at the cemetery in Hispin, Yoni shared a final correspondence between them:

"During a series of exercises in Maglan, you wrote to me on WhatsApp: 'I have three wishes - that the week goes by peacefully, that I have a vacation with the family in Eilat, and that the war starts after I have done my part'. Two wishes were fulfilled, the third less so. The Maglan commander tried to convince you to stay at the command post, but you insisted on going to battle. There, on the outskirts of Khan Yunis, the fatal bullet hit you and changed your plans and the reality of our lives in an instant. Today, your journey has ended, our dear Hagai."

In the eulogy, Yoni added about the difficult period in the shadow of the injury:

"Even at Beilinson we said goodbye to you, but you wrote new medical books. You overcame each time anew and fought like a lion. Throughout this agonizing period, we were torn between the understanding of your difficult condition and the hope and dream, and the heart's desire to see you recover and rise despite all the forecasts and explanations. We did everything we could to prevent you from suffering and to give you the best conditions, and we hope that something of all this penetrated the screen of your consciousness and was etched in your mind."

In the years after his son's fall, Yoni continued to commemorate Hagai's legacy through tours of the Golan, lectures, and meetings. In remarks he made in 2018, on Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the IDF, Yoni expressed Hagai's constant presence in daily life: "We are not satisfied with and do not need memorial days and state commemorations to cherish you in our hearts. You are with us all the time. There is no day when Mom and I do not mention you in one context or another."

"We go through old pictures on the computer, flip through folders, and read again and again letters you wrote to us... We continue our lives, and despite the terrible pain that has resided within us since we parted from you forever, we try to continue and act and sometimes overcome the pain," he added.

The funeral of Yoni Ben Ari will take place today at 15:00, at the regional cemetery in Hispin.