Youth from Otniel in the southern Hebron Hills planted 60 olive trees on Wednesday in memory and commemoration of Second Lieutenant Pdaya Mark, a Givati Platoon fighter who fell in battle in Gaza. Pdaya survived a serious shooting attack in the region in 2016, during which his father, Rabbi Michael Mark, was murdered before his eyes. His brother Shlomi, a member of the Israeli security forces, was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2019, and during the October 7th massacre, his cousin Elhanan Kalmanson, an officer at the Judea and Samaria Division headquarters, was murdered while rescuing the wounded from terrorist fire.
The planting project was made possible thanks to cooperation with the Im Tirtzu movement, which joined the cause.
Chairman Matan Peleg, who took part in the planting, said at the end of the activity, "We began the morning with a condolence visit to the Mark family home and closed the afternoon by watering the olive trees we had just planted to commemorate Pdaya and express the eternal rooted connection between the people of Israel and the Land of Israel. This is the story of the eternal Jew, the eternal nation of Israel, from ashes to resurrection. They will never break us. We have no other country, no other mission than securing the future of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel, in its own state. These 60 trees are just the beginning. With God's help, we plan to plant hundreds more trees in Otniel in the coming weeks."
Shai Kalmanson, the son of Elhanan, who fell on October 7th while rescuing wounded people from terrorists in Kibbutz Be'eri, said: "Planting a tree in the Land of Israel is the fulfillment of my father's dream and my family's dream, a dream of realizing and strengthening the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, where the plow is tilled, and the seedling is planted, there the boundaries will extend."
Shahar Hacohen, Otniel Youth Coordinator, shared: "The planting of olive trees today primarily symbolizes our perseverance and unwavering faith in the righteousness of our journey. Today, we carry on the legacy and the lives of the Otniel residents who sacrificed themselves for the sanctification of God and the perfection of the land."