SUZANNE BELLING
PHOTOGRAPHS: SUZANNE AND MICHAEL BELLING
Pictured :Anton Gillis with his fiancée Taryn Goldstein enjoying the Yom Yerushalayim banquet.
“They were soldiers of G-d, standing for the Jewish people,” Rabbi Ramon Widmonte, executive director of Mizrachi South Africa, told the guests, among them Christian supporters of Israel and representatives of the Israeli Embassy. “Today is a day of song,” said Rabbi Widmonte, “they marched to the drum of Providence and we humbly acknowledge their Herculean sacrifice.”
A photograph by the world-renowned David Rubinger of three paratroopers staring emotionally up at the Western Wall as they arrived there has become the iconic image of the Six Day War. It was shown on a screen alongside a recent picture of the same men.
In the centre of both pictures stood Dr Yitzchak Yifat, who was brought to South Africa as guest of honour at the event.
“I was so emotional, so excited,” he recalled. “The whole of Jewish history passed before my eyes.”
“I looked up at those huge stones, so special, so mighty, so impressive. We had managed to reverse 2 000 years of submission and disgrace of the Jewish people. It was unbelievable.”
Yifat described the tension leading up to the war as “very difficult days for the State of Israel”.
Concern that he had not been drafted early in the crisis, evoked “a storm of emotions”.
However, on May 23, “my heart beat through my chest”, when two young Gadna members – the organisation that prepares Israelis for military service – knocked on his door and served him with his call-up papers.
“In a matter of moments” he felt no more shame at remaining out of the army and donned his uniform and boots, filling his backpack, before departing for duty.
After the closure of the Straits of Tiran late in May 1967, he said Israel faced a choice: “Jump into the sea or fight for your rights, for freedom.”
At that stage, Israelis abroad were clamouring for seats on planes to return to fight for their country.
His unit was initially ordered to prepare for a drop on to El Arish in the Sinai. “It would have been my first operational parachute jump into enemy lines. It was a moment of truth.”
He added: “Paratroopers are not war lovers, but we were jumping into reality.”
But the orders were changed. Jordan had entered the war and his unit was heading for Jerusalem.
“We heard artillery on the outskirts of Jerusalem. There was no time for instructions or practice.”
He and his comrades got off the buses in a Jerusalem suburb. He suddenly developed bad toothache. “I felt uncomfortable speaking to anyone about it. But then a woman came out of her apartment bringing us hot coffee and cookies.
“She said her husband was a dentist. I jumped as if a snake bit me. He gave me local sedation and told me if we regained Jerusalem I could come back for free treatment all my life.”
Their first major battle was on Ammunition Hill, strongly defended by the Jordanians, including artillery fire. “The enemy fire was like hail.” Many of his friends fell around him.
“As I stopped to reload, a Jordanian attacked me with a bayonet. I pushed him aside with my gun, disabling him.”
After taking Ammunition Hill, his unit erected a monument to his fallen comrades and also built a smaller one in memory of the Jordanian soldiers whom he declared had fought bravely.
As the Israelis were entering the Old City, paramedics were called to find that the problem was an Arab woman giving birth in an alleyway. They assisted successfully.
Yifat said he later came full circle when he qualified as a gynaecologist.
Mizrachi SA chairman Avrom Krengel thanked Yifat, saying his story was one of a true hero.
Musical entertainment throughout the evening was provided by prominent Jerusalem Cantor Netanel Hershtik and the Jonathan Birin band.
