Zachary Baumel |
JERUSALEM – The father of a Brooklyn-born Israeli soldier who was captured by Syria 27 years ago has died without knowing the fate of his son.
Yona Baumel, 81, had been interviewed by WND numerous times. His main quest in life was to discover what had happened to his son, Zachary. Captured in Lebanon in 1982, there was information the past few years Zachary still was alive and was being held in Syria. Yona Baumel had petitioned the Israeli government to do more to work for the release of his soldier son, whom he believed was still alive.
Yona Baumel died last week.
Yona imigrated to Israel in 1970 with his wife, Miriam, and their three children, including Zachary.
"We are just trying to bring Zachary home," said Yona told WND in a 2006 interview in Jerusalem. "I just want my son back. I wish the Israeli government would do more but so far they have largely done nothing."
As WND reported, new information was released in 2005 indicating Zachary Baumel is being held in Syria.
Baumel, a dual American-Israeli citizen, was taken along with two Israeli members of his tank crew, Yehuda Katz and Tzvi Feldman, during Israel's foray in the Lebanon War. All three were photographed in Damascus on the day of their capture, and several eyewitnesses, including a Time magazine reporter, said they watched a parade in which the tank and crew were led through a major street in Damascus and flaunted to cheering crowds. The ceremony was the last occasion the soldiers were seen publicly.
In March 2005, Yona Baumel told WND that sources he cultivated in Syria told him they visited his son that year at a Syrian military installation just north of the border with Iraq. Baumel was also given a book from a confidante of a family in Syria that contains coded messages Baumel says could have been written only by his son.
Baumel showed WND pages from the book, a 1999 novel titled "The Map of Love." The lettering has been stained after extensive Israeli forensics testing, but a series of marks are visible under the letters "BAZMUTACUMKCEL" – ZACK BAUMEL MTUC."
Part of Zachary Baumel's dog tag. |
The MTUC, Yona had explained, came from an old family joke that outsiders would not be in a position to know.
"It had to have been written by Zack," said Baumel. "It refers to an old joke he was told from a long time ago when his mother, whose maiden name was Miriam Turetsky or MT, was a kid. The other children would point at her head and say 'it's empty you see,' or MTUC."
Additionally, phrases throughout the book were underlined or circled, including "A child forsaken," "I have hope" and "help me."
Baumel had said the evidence had given him hope and a renewed sense of urgency in his campaign to find his son.
"The information continues to trickle in," said Baumel at the time.
He and Stuart Ditchek, Zachary's childhood friend and the founder of the Committee for the Release of Zachary Baumel, attempted several times to petition the Syrian government to release Zachary or to set up a personal meeting with President Bashar Assad. Their efforts were ultimately rebuffed.
'Syrian government directly responsible'
"Over the years, a wealth of information has accrued that the Syrian Government is directly responsible in this case," Yona Baumel had said.
Zachary Baumel was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended yeshiva until his family immigrated to Israel in 1970, where he graduated high school and enlisted in the Israeli army. Baumel nearly finished his military service when he was called up to serve in the Lebanon War. Just hours before the declaration of a cease-fire, Zachary was sent into battle near the Lebanese village of Sultan Yaqub and subsequently captured. That day, 21 Israelis were killed and many more were injured.
Several weeks after Baumel was captured, Syrian officials said they buried four bodies in a Jewish cemetery. Baumel was thought to have been among the dead. But a year later, the Red Cross exhumed the graves and found the bodies were that of three Arabs and one Israeli missing from the same battle.
Syrian officials since have given conflicting reports to the media, including statements claiming Baumel and his three Israeli crewmen still were alive.
Also Israeli diplomatic sources told WND in 2006 Syrian officials have implied through third party messengers Baumel is still alive.
Prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, PLO leader Yasser Arafat presented Israel with half of Baumel's dog tag and claimed he had information on the missing soldier's whereabouts. Arafat later refused to release further details.
"The new information we have been given [indicating Zachary is being held in Syria] is very compelling that Zachary is alive," Ditchek has said. "We will get this resolved one way or another."
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