‘It was an honour to be your mother’: ‘Aussie’ mum’s tears for Israeli soldier

A woman who lived in Melbourne for 15 years has paid an emotional tribute to her son – killed during fighting at the Gaza border – as thousands farewelled the fallen Israeli soldier.

Many words were spoken at the funeral of fallen soldier Benji Trakeniski.

Eulogies, speeches from famed Israeli Defence Force veteran Avigdor Kahalani and his sobbing father were delivered, amid the wails from mourners clashing with the cheery giggles of children running around in the open cemetery.

Yet it wasn’t even his Australian mother Liz Bennett’s eulogy when she told him “thank you for the honour of letting me be your mother” that made the hundreds of mourners cry.

Mother of fallen soldier Benji Trakeniski, Liz Bennett, who lived in Melbourne for 15 years. Liz Bennett said at her sons funeral today “Benji, it was an honour to be your mother.” Picture: Supplied

Instead it was the silent look of sheer pain and horror on a mother’s face when she saw her son’s casket draped in the Israeli flag being carried by his comrades from the IDF 7th armoured brigade to the spot in the ground that echoed as the ceremony opened in Northern Tel Aviv.

More than 2000 mourners, including wounded bandaged comrades in wheelchairs, came to pay their respects to the 33-year-old Israeli soldier – who died in an exchange of gunfire on the frontline when 70 Hamas assailants infiltrated Kibbutz Be’eri on the Gaza border on Saturday.

Israeli soldier Benji Trakeniski died helping to evacuate the wounded out of Gaza. Picture: Facebook

Liz Bennett, who lived in Melbourne for many years, steeled herself, her voice cracking with emotion, when she stood at the microphone stand beside his coffin and said: “Benji from your earliest days you cared for others.

“You cared for your frail grandparents with respect and dignity, and you were ever conscious of soldiers’ needs. Benji you were a mischievous prankster …

“You had a ferocious appetite for life and food … You always put others first, even your soldiers …

“Benji, thank you for the honour of letting you be my son.”

Mourners crumbled when Benji’s fiancee Rotem — who is six months pregnant with his baby — said she dreamt their unborn child would be as kind, funny, considerate and cheeky as him.

Soldier Benji Trakeniski was in the IDF Tank Corp. Picture: Facebook

“Benji, you were my kindred spirit; we did everything together, we ran, we cooked, we lounged on the sofa, we were two souls intertwined.”

A fellow soldier from the IDF described him as brave, widely respected and “cheeky”.

“You were a cheeky bugger Benji,” the soldier said.

With Israel now bracing for hundreds more funerals like it after a weekend of slaughter shattered the population, Israelis have bonded closer still and have vowed to attend as many burials in support.

“We all come out to support each other, to lose one soul is to lose a world, says the Jewish Psalm,” said Israeli-Australian Paul Hakim.

“Many people here have been to two or three funerals.

Israelis have turned out in force for the sheer number of funerals for fallen soldiers. Picture: Getty Images

“These are unprecedented times, we all support one another, I knew Benji when he was in nappies and his mother when she lived in Melbourne, Benji was her life, her world.

“He was due to get married in April and he put everyone before himself.

“Everyone loved Benji.”

The cold reality of missile attacks that have become part of everyday life in Israel was brought home at the funeral in Herzliya on Thursday morning local time when the army’s Home Front Command warned before the proceedings over a tannoy “in case there is a rocket siren, lie on the ground face down and cover your heads with your hands, or shelter against a wall”.

At the end of the funeral, IDF veteran Avigdor Kahalani, famous for his heroics in the Yom Kippur War, praised Benji’s brave frontline attack in the Hamas incursion.

“Benji you’re a real life hero, you were fearless, you kept shooting at Hamas as he went down, you died for your country, to protect Israel,” he said.

Once his casket was lowered into the ground and bags of earth were emptied onto it, his mother, her face turned away from mourners, walked away, held up by family members and friends.