Uri Ilan

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Uri Ilan

Uri Ilan (Hebrew: אורי אילן‎, 17 February 1935 – 13 January 1955) was an Israeli soldier who committed suicide in a Syrian prison, after being captured in a covert operation on the Golan Heights.[1] He became a symbol of courage and patriotism in Israel.[2][3]

Biography[]

Early life[]

Mourners, including Israeli Military Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, far left, at the grave of Ilan (1955)

Ilan was born in 1935 in kibbutz Gan Shmuel. His mother was Fayge Ilanit, a member of the First Knesset.[4] He joined the Golani Brigade in 1953. He was the great-grandson of the famed Talmudic scholar Rabbi Shimon Shkop.

Capture and suicide[]

According to the Israel Defense Forces, he was captured by the Syrians on December 8, 1954, near a Syrian post in the Golan Heights along with four soldiers in his team.[5] The soldiers were taken into custody in Quneitra and sent to a Damascus prison for interrogation.

In the Syrian prison, they were sent to separate cells and tortured.[6][7] Believing his comrades to have been killed,[5] as falsely claimed by his captors in an attempt to weaken morale, Ilan hanged himself on 13 January 1955 in his prison cell, using a rope made from the fabric of the mattress cover. In his clothing, Ilan hid nine notes addressed to his homeland, Israel, and his family. The most famous is a scrap of paper on which he wrote the Hebrew words "לא בגדתי. התאבדתי" ("Lo bagadeti, hitabadeti") which means: "I did not betray. I committed suicide," that is to say, he chose to end his own life so as not to reveal military secrets under torture.[5] He was buried on 14 January 1955 in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel.

Return to Israel[]

On 29 March 1956 the four Israeli soldiers who were captured along with Uri Ilan were returned to Israel in exchange for 40 Syrian soldiers.[8]

Ilan's suicide and the notes he left behind set off a great outpouring of grief in Israel, but also a sense of national pride.

References[]

  1. ^ "Syria returns the body of a soldier captured in Damascus". Israel Defense Forces. Archived from the original on December 21, 2011.
  2. ^ Moses Rum; Zev H. Ehrlich (12 January 2005). אורי אילן - מסר נוסף בפתקים [Uri Ilan - More message notes]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  3. ^ Jonathan Frankel, ed. (1994). Reshaping the Past: Jewish History and the Historians. Studies in Contemporary Jewry. X. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509355-0.
  4. ^ Avi Shlaim (2001). The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04816-0. Uri Ilan.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Syria returns the body of a soldier captured in Damascus". IDF. Archived from the original on December 21, 2011.
  6. ^ Navies in Northern Waters, 1721-2000. . 2004. p. 130.
  7. ^ "This Week in History: 'I didn't betray my country'". The Jerusalem Post. 8 January 2012.
  8. ^ "Timeline: Israeli prisoner exchanges". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2011-09-29.
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