Thousands attended the double funerals held at the Gush Etzion Junction of 14 year old boys, Yossef Ishran and Koby Mandell, who were discovered in the early morning hours following a night long nerve wracking search. The bodies were discovered next to the Haritun Caves, half buried under a pile of blood-soaked rocks with only their feet sticking out, a short distance from their homes in Tekoa. The walls of the caves were smeared with the blood of the young boys. Next to their bodies were strewn their bags containing their uneaten sandwiches and water which they had taken with them on what was going to be a fun day of seeking out the perfect site to hold the traditional Lag B'Omer bonfire on Thursday night.

The massive crowd of mourners included hundreds of children, friends from the two schools the boys had attended in Efrat and Alon Shvut as well as their many friends from Tekoa. The crowd, who arrived for the scheduled 4:30 p.m. funeral was turned back home after an announcement over the loudspeaker that there would be an hour and a half delay of the funeral procession leaving Tekoa. In silence the huge crowd slowly emptied back into their cars and the buses. Only after returning to the funeral site did we learn the reason for the delay. Lab test results. Not satisfied with crushing the skulls of the two youngsters, the subhuman murderers continued to mutilate and abuse the bodies long after their last breaths were drawn. Those who discovered the bodies reported that the faces were so badly disfigured that they were no longer recognizable as human beings. The only way to make a definite identification was through fingerprints.

The crowd silently awaited the funeral procession that was on its way from Tekoa. Two stands were standing in preparation for the bodies which would be laid out for the eulogies before being taken to the two respective cemeteries - Koby would be laid to rest in Kfar Etzion and Yossef in Jerusalem. Psalms were chanted over the loudspeaker and the crowd chanted back the words of the psalms written centuries ago by King David - many of these psalms were written in the very caves near where the boys were found dead when King David hid in the Judean Desert caves when fleeing from King Saul and his soldiers.

A choked hush went through the crowd when the family was announced. The hundreds of children held on to each other, tears streaming down their faces. The mass of mourners, covering every inch of ground, parted like the Red Sea to make way for the families. The crowd made an audible gasp and broke into quiet sobs as first the small talit (prayer shawl) wrapped body of Yossef Ishran was brought forth and lowered on to the stand followed by his family who huddled around the body, hugging, and holding on to each other, weeping over their dead son and brother. Then came the body of Koby, wrapped in his father's talit, the same one his father wore when he proudly held his first-born son Koby at his circumcision ceremony when he was eight days old. Following came Koby's father, Rabbi Seth Mandell, holding six year old Gabi with one arm while trying to hold on with his other hand to eleven year old Lilliana and twelve year old Daniel. Daniel received the horrifying news of the murder of his brother earlier this morning while on a school field trip in the Golan Heights. He has not stopped crying since. The heartbroken sobs of the small children who stood over their big brother's body was too much to bear. The whole crowd weeped outloud. Then Koby's mother, Sherri was led/carried to the body of her first born child. The sight of the raw pain on her beautiful face cut like a knife into the hearts of all. Sherri, a talented author and teacher of creative writing lay her head down on her son's ravaged body, holding him in a tender embrace, weeping inconsolably and we felt like our hearts would break.

Are there any words of consolation for such a terrible, brutal murder? For long moments we stood there crying, speechless. School children crying on their friends shoulders, adults, friends and family crying like we've never cried before.

Later at the cemetary, Seth Mandell read a poem written by Sherri last year to her first born son Koby which was published in wholefamily.com, where Sherri is a contributing writer.

First Son
By Sherri Lederman Mandell

To Koby

You have always been a boy who knows his own direction
Even as a baby you pointed which way to go
At the light
When I was lost - as if you could drive.

When you were two,
You could recite the words to your books
As if you knew how to read.

And now we touch hands
And discover yours are bigger than mine
As if you were a man.

Every day you are coming closer to being above me.
Soon I will have to look up to you.

In conclusion, Seth added: "We will always look up to you".

In his eulogy, Saul Goldstein, regional mayor of Gush Etzion, talked about the need to close down the PLO's broadcasting networks where there are daily calls for murder of the Zionists and incitement against the Jews is broadcasted 24 hours a day.

Before the rocks, bullets, knives, bombs - it is the words that kill. Hate is contributed through education, incitement, the general atmosphere. There is a direct connection between incitement calling for killing the Zionist enemy blasting daily from Palestinian media to Syria's dictator Assad pointing at the Jews as Jesus' murderer and humiliater of Prophet Muhammad, while his Defense Minister Dr. Mustafah Tallas was quoted in the L.B.C. Lebanese network saying "If every Arab kills a Jew, then there will be no more Jews". He also said "I want to stand in place and kill the Jew standing opposite me". This incitement goes along with Egypt's very popular no. 1 hit number called: "I hate Israel", played constantly over the Egyptian airwaves.

This is the climate which produced the murderers who butchered two sweet beautiful innocent Jewish boys looking for a place to build a bonfire.

The children of Tekoa promised to hold their bonfires tonight at the site of the murder. The cave where the bodies were found is situated at the edge of the Judean desert, less than a kilometer from Tekoa. These big caves, the largest in the Middle East, where the prophet Amos, as is written, tended his flocks in "Tekoa" held all the mysteries and adventure of Adventureland. It was the place the children of Tekoa go to hang out, talk to wandering Bedouins tending their flocks, paint, meditate and celebrate the beauty of nature. For the children of Tekoa it was the extension of their backyards. The beautiful landscape this time of year is covered in the bloom of spring. Now it is sprinkled with blood.

Wake up Israel. Wake up world. Smell the blood.

Link & Sources:

Sara Bedein. Our Memoriam page.