‘My sweet boy’: Thousands gather for funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, hostage killed in Gaza

Jerusalem: At a sprawling cemetery in Jerusalem, thousands of people thronged the carpark to memorialise Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a dual Israeli-American citizen and one of six hostages whose bodies were found in Gaza on Saturday, as family members and friends delivered emotional eulogies and sang Jewish hymns.

The Monday funeral, which was attended by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, was a sombre reminder of the perilous situation facing the dozens of hostages still thought to be alive in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jonathan Polin, parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed in Hamas captivity.Credit: AP

It reflected the resonance that Goldberg-Polin’s plight had with a wide spectrum of Israeli society, drawing secular and religious people who had never met him but found inspiration in his story.

The gathering also signified the end of a nearly 11-month journey, in which his parents, Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, crisscrossed the globe to lobby for his freedom, meeting US President Joe Biden, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Pope Francis.

Mourners gather by the grave of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.Credit: AP

Clad in a ripped shirt, a Jewish mourning custom, Rachel Goldberg-Polin said it was a “stunning honour” to be his mother and spoke of the unimaginable distress and torment of worrying about him.

“I tried hard to suppress the missing you part because that, I was convinced, would break me,” she said, describing the almost year-long experience as an “odyssey of torture”.

Holding back tears, she expressed some relief that her son was no longer in danger.

“Finally, my sweet boy,” she said. “Finally, finally, finally, you’re free.”

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was killed in captivity in Gaza by Hamas militants.Credit: AP

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was born in the Bay Area near San Francisco and moved to Israel when he was about seven, was abducted on October 7 near the grounds of the Nova music festival, where he was celebrating his 23rd birthday. He was grievously injured that day and was seen in a video clip being forced to climb onto the back of a ute with his left arm blown off.

Israeli forces discovered his body in a tunnel underneath the city of Rafah at the weekend. Israel said Hamas had killed him; a forensic examination showed the hostages had been shot at close range sometime between Thursday and Friday morning, Israel’s Health Ministry said.

The burial of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was found on Saturday.Credit: AP

About the same time he was being kidnapped, Goldberg-Polin found two texts from her child. “I love you guys,” he had written to his family. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you OK?” Goldberg-Polin wrote back. “Please let us know you’re OK.” There was no reply.

Herzog, whose position is largely ceremonial, expressed remorse that Israel had failed both to protect Goldberg-Polin on October 7 and to bring him home alive.

“I ask for forgiveness in the name of the state of Israel,” he said. “I apologise that the country you immigrated to at the age of seven, wrapped in the Israeli flag, could not keep you safe.”

In comments seemingly directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzog demanded that the country’s leaders take action to secure the freedom of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

Mourners gather for the burial of Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem.Credit: AP

“Decision-makers must do everything possible, with determination and courage, to save those who can still be saved and to bring back all our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters,” he said.

“This is not a political goal, and it must not become a political dispute. It is a supreme moral, Jewish and human duty of the state of Israel to its citizens.”

Other notable people who attended the funeral included Jacob Lew, the US ambassador to Israel, who appeared shaken as he watched the young man’s burial, and Eli Groner, the former director-general of the Israeli prime minister’s office.

Polin said his son had challenged him and other family members to think hard about a wide array of issues, including the ethics of eating animals and Israeli settlement policy.

He was “always seeking to understand the other,” he said.

In his bedroom, Hersh Goldberg-Polin had kept a rectangular piece of artwork that read “JERUSALEM IS EVERYONE’S” in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

Yaniv Mezuman, 48, a former teacher, said Goldberg-Polin was a “special soul” who showed incredible intellectual curiosity.

“He projected light on everyone he met,” he said. “I fell in love with him within a second of meeting him.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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