Yoni Cohen, the brother of David Cohen, who fell in battle about 39 years ago and whose parents fought, unsuccessfully, to inscribe HY"D (a traditional Hebrew acronym calling for God to avenge his death) on his grave, told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News that they intend to invoke a recent Defense Ministry decision to have the grave changed.
"Finally, justice is done. For years we did not deal with the subject until a few weeks ago when the request of the Yudkin family arose, whose publication we heard about on Arutz Sheva - Israel National News, , and as a result, I contacted them and offered help because we had dealt with it before," Cohen says.
He adds: "I spoke with the mother, Tzipi, and other family members, we passed on information to them and helped them strengthen the public demand because from our point of view, helping them is helping all of us, all of Israel, this is the right thing to do. Immediately after they received approval from the Supreme Court, Dovi Yudkin sent me a message that the struggle was successful, we were happy together about their achievement".
Yoni emphasizes that they intend to change the inscription on the headstone despite the time that has passed. "My parents, Rabbi Aviezer and Rachel Cohen, passed away and are buried in the parents' cemetery near the cemetery where my brother is buried. When my father requested that the name of his son be written with HY"D on his grave, and we did so, now we will request David's headstone be updated to include HY"D".
David Cohen was a student at Har Etzion, fought in the Givati Brigade, and was killed in the first Lebanon War. "My parents asked the Ministry of Defense to add HY"D but were refused. At some point, they couldn't convince them and added another plaque with his name and HY"D on the lower part of the headstone, but in the dead of night, the addition to the headstone was removed".
"After a few years, some people submitted a lawsuit to add the Gregorian date to the grave, which was not customary then, and even after the Supreme Court's approval, my parents' request was not accepted. My father appealed to the Minister of Defense and Knesset members but continued to be refused. Eventually, my parents themselves submitted a lawsuit, and indeed the Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction on why they shouldn't be allowed to write HY"D on the headstone, but the event didn't end there - the Ministry of Defense fought against the decision, and finally, my parents placed another small plaque on the lying part of the headstone, and that's what there is to this day."
