The 17th of August marked five years since Israeli soldier Guy Hever went missing near his army base in the Golan Heights. Not a single hint of his fate has been found since then, and in fact the only development in the case is that the army recently agreed to re-classify him as "missing" instead of "disappeared."
His mother Rina told Arutz-7's Emanuel Shilo today that the classification is important for two reasons: "The word 'disappeared' [ne'elam, in Hebrew] has negative connotations, as if he disappeared of his own will, and even in Psalms it is written, 'Do not sit with 'ne'elamim,' i.e., with those who would do bad... In addition, it influences the way the officials relate to the case and the seriousness with which they deal with it."
Asked what possibilities are under consideration, she said, "Look, we recently spoke with Prime Minister Sharon and said, 'Let's assume we go along with the scenario being considered by the army, that he either committed suicide, or is walking around with a fake identity, maybe even broadcasting on Arutz-7 - and Sharon simply started to laugh. In other words, it's clear that there aren't very many options. We claimed from the first minute that something happened to him, that he was abducted..." She said that the most likely option was to Syria, "since he was close to the border, and was last seen hitch-hiking in that direction. If Palestinian terrorists had taken him, something would have come to light in all this time - but not a thing has been found..."
Asked if anything could have predicted that he might disappear on his own, Guy's mother said, "We visited him the day before he disappeared, we celebrated with him, bringing him books that he wanted, and had a pleasant meal with him. The next day, he was supposed to stand trial for something very stupid - he did not want to participate in a certain social gathering, and even after he gave in, his commanders wanted to show him up and put him on trial. We assume that in his storm of emotions, he walked out and started hitch-hiking."
She said that the army treated the disappearance lightly at first, assuming that he would return on his own, and therefore got a slow start on the search. "When they brought the dogs to sniff for clues three days afterwards," she said, "the trainer told me straight out that it was too late to find anything... The army is now going along with our thesis, however, and is treating this as an abduction..." For more information, see 'www.mia.org.il/stories/html'.
His mother Rina told Arutz-7's Emanuel Shilo today that the classification is important for two reasons: "The word 'disappeared' [ne'elam, in Hebrew] has negative connotations, as if he disappeared of his own will, and even in Psalms it is written, 'Do not sit with 'ne'elamim,' i.e., with those who would do bad... In addition, it influences the way the officials relate to the case and the seriousness with which they deal with it."
Asked what possibilities are under consideration, she said, "Look, we recently spoke with Prime Minister Sharon and said, 'Let's assume we go along with the scenario being considered by the army, that he either committed suicide, or is walking around with a fake identity, maybe even broadcasting on Arutz-7 - and Sharon simply started to laugh. In other words, it's clear that there aren't very many options. We claimed from the first minute that something happened to him, that he was abducted..." She said that the most likely option was to Syria, "since he was close to the border, and was last seen hitch-hiking in that direction. If Palestinian terrorists had taken him, something would have come to light in all this time - but not a thing has been found..."
Asked if anything could have predicted that he might disappear on his own, Guy's mother said, "We visited him the day before he disappeared, we celebrated with him, bringing him books that he wanted, and had a pleasant meal with him. The next day, he was supposed to stand trial for something very stupid - he did not want to participate in a certain social gathering, and even after he gave in, his commanders wanted to show him up and put him on trial. We assume that in his storm of emotions, he walked out and started hitch-hiking."
She said that the army treated the disappearance lightly at first, assuming that he would return on his own, and therefore got a slow start on the search. "When they brought the dogs to sniff for clues three days afterwards," she said, "the trainer told me straight out that it was too late to find anything... The army is now going along with our thesis, however, and is treating this as an abduction..." For more information, see 'www.mia.org.il/stories/html'.