The death of Capt. Nir Poraz, who was killed last Friday in a failed attempt to rescue abducted soldier Nachshon Waxman, has prompted a campaign to reevaluated Israel Defense Force procedures for accepting into combat or elite units the children of those who have died in the line of duty.
Poraz, 23, of Ramat Hasharon, was the only son of Maoz Poraz, a pilot who was shot down during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Nir Poraz was two years old at the time of his father’s death. His mother, Mati, raised him and his two sisters alone.
The elder Poraz, an E1 A1 pilot, also was the first officer on an E1 A1 flight hijacked to Algeria in 1968. He was wounded by his captors, and held 40 days before he was released.
“He insisted that he be drafted into an elite unite,” Ramat Hasharon’s mayor, Efraim Hiris, said at Nir Poraz’s funeral Sunday. “He came from a family like that; it couldn’t have been any other way.”
Under current regulations, a child from a family that has already lost a son or a parent in the line of duty must have parental permission to join a combat or elite unit. Those who are only children must also obtain permission.
Ofra Friedman, chairman of Na’amat, the women’s branch of the Histadrut Labor Federation, sent a letter to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin this week calling on him to find another way of classifying these soldiers.
“These parents are torn between the entreaties of the child to serve in a fighting unit, and their fears of the implications of the signature,” the letter said.
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