The one-year memorial of the murder of Evyatar Borovsky underlined a theme that accompanies Jewish resettlement of the Land of Israel since day one: “the more you kill us, the more we will settle the land.”
Borovsky, a 31-year-old father of five and actor from Yitzhar, in Samaria, was stabbed to death at the Tapuach Junction on April 30 last year. One of three brothers, he was raised in the village of Kfar Hassidim in the Zevulun Valley.
A march in his memory was held Wednesday, Jerusalem Day, starting from Tapuach Junction and ending in Migdalim, where a new community is planned, to be named after Evyatar.
Elyada Barak, Evyatar's older brother, told Arutz Sheva that one year after the murder, the pain is still there, but it is accompanied by feelings of joy.
"Last year, we got up from the shiva right into this [Jerusalem Day] rally, and the feelings were very confusing and harsh. On the one hand, joy over the liberation of Jerusalem and Samaria, but mixed with a great sadness over the loss, the loss of a very special person who was connected to Samaria in the full sense of the word, who purposely chose to live in Yitzhar in order to settle the homeland.”
This year, he added, the family understands fully that the march is the best way to memoralize Evyatar. “This year the feelings are better rooted, you understand what happened and that that your little brother will not come back. But really, with all of the pain and suffering that we have experienced, that we are experiencing and will continue to experience, there is a feeling of joy, because happiness was the thing that typified Evyatar more than anything. This is the heritage he left behind, and we are convinced that he would have wanted us to rejoince today, and especially on this day, and on this Jeruasalem Day march. This march says – we are here and we are not moving from here, and no one will be able to move us, not from Samaria, not from Binyamin, not from the ordan Valley.”
Elyada hopes that a community named after his brother will be established soon. “It is very important for us on this day, to come and take part and simply be happy, because that is the most important thing. We march from Tapuach Junction, where he was purdered, to the community of Migdalim, 2.5 kilimoeters away from the junction, where the community of Evyatar will be established, in memory of my brother. This is the answer to terror: for every Jew who is murdered, ten communities should spring up.”