JERUSALEM - A 20-year-old Canadian serving in the Israeli army who died last Wednesday when his tank blew up in southern Lebanon was buried Sunday in the town of Modin.
Staff Sgt. Yaniv Bar-on, who lived in Israel but spent his summers in Montreal as a youth, was killed when the tank he was driving hit an explosive device as he chased Hezbollah fighters who had just kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
Bar-on died while trying to help the tank's other three crew members. The other soldiers also died from the explosion, which was caused by a 300 kilogram mine.
"He was a warm, kind-hearted kid, like a great teddy bear you wanted to hug," his uncle, Harry Cohen, said late Sunday after the funeral.
The ceremony was attended by more than 1,000 mourners in Modin, which lies between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
"To lose him is a loss for everyone."
Bar-on, who was promoted posthumously to the rank of staff sergeant, had intended to become an air traffic controller when he left the Israeli Defence Forces and was considering doing those studies in Canada, his uncle said. Service in Israel's military is compulsory.
"He spent every summer in Montreal where he went to summer camps," said his 42-year-old uncle. "He loved watching from the sixth floor balcony of his grandmother's apartment as planes landed all day at Dorval Airport.
"Where he was buried is where airplanes sometimes turn when coming into land at Ben Gurion Airport, so we were saying today that he will be able to watch airplanes for ever."
The funeral had been "so beautiful, it is a shame it had to be because Yaniv had died," Cohen said.
Bar-on's mother Carleen, emigrated from Montreal to Israel where she met her husband, Asher, who was from South Africa. Harry Cohen, who is Carleen's brother, lives in New York where he works in public relations for a law firm. He is returning to Montreal next year.
"Hezbollah had crossed the line by kidnapping" Israeli soldiers inside Israel, Cohen said.
'LOVABLE'
"But "even in these circumstances, if Hezbollah had known Yaniv they would have loved him, too."
His voice choked with emotion, Yaniv's uncle added:
"It's so easy to hate but hate can be so destructive. The harder route -- whether it is your son, husband or nephew -- is to not hate. If we all knew each other better there would be less hate. We have to work at this."
Cohen said Bar-on and his tank mates "had done everything by the book, trying to mount a rescue operation.
"They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, he said"
In addition to his parents, Bar-on is survived by his siblings, Eitan, 23, and Hadas, 18.
PUBLICATION: The Windsor Star
DATE: 2006.07.17
BYLINE: Matthew Fisher
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