Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara paid a condolence call to the home of the late Border Guard Policewoman, Staff Sergeant-Major Hadas Malka, z’l, on Sunday night (June 18) after she was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Ashdod.
The young woman’s family had begun to “sit shiva,” the traditional Jewish seven-day mourning period devoted solely to grieving for the departed loved one (“shiva” means “seven” in Hebrew) at their home in Moshav Givat Ezer in central Israel.
“We saw just now a wonderful family, a very fine family with deep love for the land and the state,” the prime minister told media following the visit.
“These things are so apparent when we see Hadas’s story and it is totally clear where she grew up and the values she brought with her from such a home.
“This is the child of us all and the hero for us all.
“If there is one thing that is etched in me, and – I am certain – also in my wife and in whoever was there, it is what Hadas’s father David said: ‘You must understand that if we are not there then we have no capital.’
“And I say: Without these young people, we have no country. I bow my head and salute you, Hadas, our hero.”
Tthe prime minister’s wife Sara, a professional psychologist, also spoke with media.
“This girl was a leader, a beautiful girl; we see that she was someone special.
“All of us, I think every mother and father in the State of Israel, and the State of Israel, we all embrace Hadas’s mother and father, and [her] brothers and sisters.
“A truly wonderful family and every time it is sad again to discover our heroes and heroines, when it is always too late for me to sit and talk with them, but her presence in the room was so strong and so special.
“I told them that they were truly privileged to have such a child.
“I think that all of us in the country are privileged to have such a heroine and a child like Hadas Malka — and like Hadar Cohen, to whom Hadas wrote a chilling post over a year ago in which she saluted her.
“She did not know that hers would be a similar fate. It is simply heart-rending. I think that we all, without exception, embrace the Malka family, for our heroic daughter.”