Uri Ilan

Uri Ilan (Hebrew, אורי אילן) was an Israeli soldier who found his death in a Syrian prison and had, since then, become a symbol for the Israeli struggle for survival and patriotism.

Uri Ilan was born in 1935 in the Kibbutz of "Gan Samuel", son of Israeli parliament member "Fayga Ilanit". He joined the Golani infantry division in 1953.

Uri Ilan volunteered to a five men unit responsible to maintain Israeli placed eavesdropping devices on Syrian phone lines. On one of their missions, the Israeli unit encountered a Syrian patrol and were forced to surrender. They were brought into custody in Konyetra and to questioning in a Damascus prison.

The five men were seperated. They endured brutal torture by Syrian officials. The abundance of headlines at the time removed the capture of the five soldiers from the headlines. The Israeli government apparently did little for their release as they remained there for a very long period of time.

After five weeks of brutal questioning and torture, seperated from his comrades, Uri Ilan hung himself in his prison cell using a rope from the mattress's cover. In his clothes, Uri hid nine different letters addressing his homeland Israel and his family. Amongst them, the notorious symbolized "Lo Bagadti", which is "I did not betray" in hebrew. In retrospect, two of his unit members (Meyir Ya'akobi and Meyir Moses) already broke in questioning and told the Syrians about the whereabouts of the eavesdropping devices.

Ilan's suicide and the letters he hid caused a great deal of impression and patriotism in the Israeli public. His life story became a symbol of heroism and self sacrifice for the state of Israel and for the Israeli never ending struggle for survival.

The four remaining soldiers returned home to Israel after a prisoner exchange in return for 40 Syrian prisoners in 1956. Meyir Ya'akobi and Meyir Moses were put to trial for alleged treason. They were demoted and rebuked. Ya'akobi was killed a short time afterwards in the Sinai War of 1956. Documents that were found in the Six day war, some 11 years later, indicated that both Ya'akobi and Moses actually tried to take their own lives with the lives of their Syrian captors by stepping into a mine field. Meyir Moses received full pardon in 2005 by president Katsav.