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IDF memorial for slain father and son vandalized; bereaved wife and mother ‘shocked and disgusted’

Memorial to Dovi and Eran Shamir served an observation point for hikers in the Jezreel Valley.

By World Israel News Staff

A unique memorial commemorating a father and son who both fell in combat while serving in the IDF was recently vandalized and severely damaged, Ynet reported on Tuesday.

Major Dovi Shamir was killed in 1977 while serving in the reserves unit of the paratroopers. He left behind a wife and three children.

One of his sons, Captain Eran Shamir, was killed 20 years later, in 1997’s Chariots of Fire clash in southern Lebanon.

Shamir’s widow and loved ones created a memorial honoring the father and son on the Gilboa Ridge in the Jezreel Valley, overlooking the northern Israel of Beit She’an.

Consisting of several large marble slabs, the memorial also served as a birdhouse for local birds and an observation point for hikers and sightseers.

But recently, unknown perpetrators smashed the memorial into several pieces, rendering it unrecognizable.

“I was totally shocked and disgusted after hearing about the horrible vandalism,” said Hadas Shamir, the widow and bereaved mother of Dovi and Eran Shamir, in a video aimed at raising funds to restore the site.

“It really reminded me of the days when they knocked on my door” and informed her about the deaths of her husband, and later her son, she added.

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“In 2002, we inaugurated the aviary after several years of hard work on it. About two and a half years ago, we decided to restore it, renovated it and added an explanatory plaque,” Hadas Shamir, the widow and bereaved mother, told Ynet.

“Our acquaintances passed by there on a recent Saturday morning and saw the terrible destruction. I felt the same feeling as 45 years ago. The blood in my body ran cold. Again I was told about a disaster, for the third time.”

Shamir noted that the attack on the memorial was likely planned in advance.

“To destroy the marble slabs you need heavy tools,” she said. “They destroyed them all…. simply threw the pieces of marble in different directions.”

She said both she and regular visitors to the site were “very upset” by the destruction.