Killing of Roi Rotberg
Killing of Roi Rotberg also Roi Rutenberg was a 21-year-old member of Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel who was murdered in 1956 in an incident that is regarded as one incident in a long list of pre-1967 attacks on Israeli civilians.
Murder[edit]
Nahal Oz became a kibbutz in 1953 and was frequently in conflict with Arabs who crossed the nearby armistice line from Gaza to reap crops and conduct petty theft.[1] Rotberg was the kibbutz security officer.[1] Rotberg and his men were regularly involved in chasing off infiltrators, sometimes using lethal force.[1] On April 29, 1956 he was caught in a prepared ambush.[1] He was shot off his horse, beaten and shot again, then his body was dragged into Gaza.[1] It was returned the same day, in a very poor state, after UN mediation.[1]
In November 1956, after Israel had invaded the Gaza Strip, two of Rotberg's killers were apprehended and sentenced to life imprisonment.[1] They were later released in a prisoner exchange.[1]
The year after the murder, the Jewish National Fund planted large groves of trees between the Kibbutz and Gaza, to block surveillance of activity on the kibbutz by terrorists in Gaza.[2]
Moshe Dayan eulogy[edit]
The murder retains particular resonance in Israeli culture because of a memorable funeral oration given by Moshe Dayan, then Chief of Staff, who called upon Israel to search its soul and probe the national mindset.
- "Early yesterday morning Roi was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him and he did not see those waiting in ambush for him, at the edge of the furrow. Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate. It is not among the Arabs in Gaza, but in our own midst that we must seek Roi's blood. How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate, and see, in all its brutality, the destiny of our generation? Have we forgotten that this group of young people dwelling at Nahal Oz is bearing the heavy gates of Gaza on its shoulders? Beyond the furrow of the border, a sea of hatred and desire for revenge is swelling, awaiting the day when serenity will dull our path, for the day when we will heed the ambassadors of malevolent hypocrisy who call upon us to lay down our arms. Roi's blood is crying out to us and only to us from his torn body. Although we have sworn a thousandfold that our blood shall not flow in vain, yesterday again we were tempted, we listened, we believed.
- We will make our reckoning with ourselves today; we are a generation that settles the land and without the steel helmet and the cannon's maw, we will not be able to plant a tree and build a home. Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who live around us. Let us not avert our eyes lest our arms weaken. This is the fate of our generation. This is our life's choice - to be prepared and armed, strong and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down. The young Roi who left Tel Aviv to build his home at the gates of Gaza to be a wall for us was blinded by the light in his heart and he did not see the flash of the sword. The yearning for peace deafened his ears and he did not hear the voice of murder waiting in ambush. The gates of Gaza weighed too heavily on his shoulders and overcame him."[3][4][5]
Ongoing impact[edit]
During the 2014 Israel/Hamas conflict the incident was compared to the killing of Hadar Goldin.[6]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Benny Morris (1993). Israel's Border Wars. Oxford University Press. pp. 393–396. Search this book on
- ↑ Eyadat, Fadi (4 June 2008). "Nahal Oz hopes to outsmart Gaza attackers". Haaretz. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ↑ Shapira, Anita. Israel; A History. p. 271. Retrieved 23 September 2014. Search this book on
- ↑ Gordis, Daniel (14 August 2014). "How Hamas's kibbutz attack awoke young Israelis". Chicago Tribune. Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ↑ Friedman, Matti (8 August 2012). "In the Border Kibbutz Brushed by Terror, An Understated Resiliance". Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ↑ Gordis, Daniel (14 August 2014). "How Hamas's kibbutz attack awoke young Israelis". Chicago Tribune. Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
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