Cousin of the deceased family physician, MK Ram Ben Barak, says his relative was “having a lot of fun” on his trip.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
A 71-year-old Israeli died while traveling in Nepal on Monday, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry is working with the deceased man’s family to repatriate the body for burial.
Dr. Assaf Ben-Barak, a family physician who lived in Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza Strip, was killed by an apparent landslide while hiking in Nepal’s Tilicho Lake region.
“We were a little worried about him up there in the mountains, he wasn’t a 17-year-old kid, but that’s the kind of guy he was,” his cousin, Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben-Barak, told Walla News.
“He sent photos from the trip to our family WhatsApp group. He said that the trails were challenging, but beautiful and that he was having a lot of fun.”
“We were very close,” the MK continued, adding that his “family-oriented” cousin had studied medicine with his wife. He was a “very spiritual type, loved nature, loved traveling, and was very connected to the environment.”
Ben-Barak’s fellow kibbutz member, one-time MK Haim Yelin, said that “Nepal was his favorite place in the world after Israel, and he returned there time after time.
“This was his fourth trip there,” Yelin told Walla News. “On the one hand, we are all very sad about his passing, on the other hand, while he left us too soon for our liking, it happened in his favorite place.”
Yelin added that Ben-Barak was well-known on the kibbutz for being a doctor who was “always available” to consult with sick and injured residents.
Ben-Barak is survived by a wife, Smadar, as well as children and grandchildren.
In recent weeks, an Israeli tourist in his 20s drowned in Laos, and another Israeli man was discovered deceased in his hotel room in India.