August 17, 1999
HEADLINE: A Mother's Search for her Son
BYLINE: Amir Rappaport
In an attempt to locate her missing son, IDF soldier Guy Hever, Rina
Hever has met with Abu Ala, Jibril Rajub and Saeb Ariqat; with
Miguel Moratinos, President of the European Union, with German
mediator Brent Schmidtbauer and with diplomats in Paris and
Bonn who remain nameless. Even the late King of Morocco tried
to lend his help. "As a mother, I still dream of Guy stepping
through the door out of nowhere."
Last
Saturday, in the early morning hours, Rina Hever stepped into
her car and drove away from her Kochav Yair home and headed
for Jerusalem. She made her way to the eastern part of the
city, looking for the American Colony hotel, where senior
Palestinian Authority officials often stay. Abu Ala, Speaker
of the Palestinian Parliament, was already waiting for her in
the elegant hotel lobby, greeting her with a warm smile. Abu
Ala had agreed to meet Hever as part of her desperate and
relentless attempts to find some kind of a lead that might
help solve the mystery of the disappearance of her son, Guy.
The meeting with the Palestinian official was part of a
hitherto secretive diplomatic campaign which Hever has been
pursuing in recent months in an attempt to jumpstart the
deadlocked investigation.
Exactly two
years have passed since the day Guy Hever marched, armed with
his "Galil" assault rifle, towards the eastern fence of the
Artillery Corps camp, at the heart of the Golan Heights, where
he was stationed. No one has heard from Guy since that day;
all traces of him were lost. Guy did not own a cellular phone
and had no money or credit card on him. As far as the IDF is
concerned, his disappearance is unprecedented. Never has a
soldier been missing for so long during peace time. Since
August 17th 1997, the day he was last seen, IDF and Israeli
Police investigators have examined dozens of scenarios trying
to ascertain his whereabouts, but have not reached any
significant conclusion. Hever was a computer freak and since
he had disappeared IDF investigators have disassembled his PC
several times in search of a clue. Wadis and cliffs in the
Golan Heights were combed incessantly, using dogs and
choppers; private investigators hired by the family have even
searched for Guy in Yeshivas (religious seminaries), in the
off chance that he had decided to turn ultra orthodox. All to
no avail. Statements by people who claimed that they had seen
Hever after August 17th were also looked into. His hometown
and army friends were questioned, in some cases using
hypnosis. A television program investigating unsolved
mysteries and crimes asked for the public's help, but the
fifty-four viewer phone calls did not bring about the desired
breakthrough. A senior military official stated that he did
not remember a mystery such as the Guy Hever one. Once in a
while the Hever case is brought to the attention of IDF
officials, who are not able to shed new light on the mystery.
Having no other choice, and feeling that she is the only one
who would pursue the matter with endless devotion, Rina Hever
took on the mission of finding her son. Before Guy
disappeared, Rina had helped run the clinic of her husband
Eitan, a psychiatrist. Today she is heading the search "war
room" that had been set up in the couple's home. Her main
task, besides the relentless attempts to find new leads and
clues, is an ongoing effort to keep the IDF and the State of
Israel from forgetting the open case. Hever is trying to meet
with as many security personnel and influential diplomats as
possible, in the hopes that they will help her find her lost
son. Although she feels she is barely up for the task
emotionally, Rina believes that if she does not do it - no one
else will. The idea of conducting a long series of diplomatic
meetings, assisted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, was
conceived after examining two possible explanations for
Hever's disappearance: the first - that he had crossed the
Syrian border close to his Golan Heights base, and the second
- that he had been abducted by a Palestinian organization.
Although no information has been received so far that would
corroborate the second option, it is important to note that in
another missing soldier case, the case of the late Sharon
Edry, searchers had no lead whatsoever until Edry's body was
recovered, nine months after his disappearance, following the
exposure of the Hamas group that had carried out the terrorist
attack in the Apropo restaurant in Tel-Aviv.
The IDF and
Israeli Police have examined the possibility that Hever had
crossed the border to Syria. They have questioned, among
others, a Zimbabwean ornithologist who had arrived in the
Golan Heights to watch birds. He said that on the day Hever
disappeared he noticed an IDF soldier walking toward the
Syrian border. However, IDF operations logs did not indicate
any unusual movements along the border that day. This fact has
not kept Rina Hever from pursuing the Syrian option. A few
weeks ago, at her request, she toured the area of the
Israeli-Syrian border with the IDF Commander in the Golan
Heights in order to get a closer look. At the same time she is
personally trying to convey a message, in any way possible, to
the Syrian authorities, in an attempt to find out whether they
have any information regarding her son. Dr. Itamar Rabinovich,
former Israeli ambassador to the US, who has been leading the
contacts with Syria, maintains close contacts with Hever and
assists her as much as possible. The Israeli Foreign Ministry
has also pulled its weight and arranged trips to Paris and
Bonn where Hever was to contact Syrian officials. During those
trips Hever met, six months ago, with six diplomats whose
identity cannot be revealed at this stage. Hassan, late king
of Morocco, also tried to assist in contacting Syrian
officials, at the request of Interior Minister Natan
Sharansky. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has also arranged a
meeting between Rina Hever and Miguel Moratinos, president of
the European Union, which took place in Jerusalem. At the same
time, the search on the Palestinian track continues. The
recent meeting between Hever and Abu Ala followed a series of
meetings in which the mother tried to look into the
"Palestinian option." Prior to this meeting, Hever had
secretly met with the head of the Palestinian General Security
Service in the West Bank, Jibril Rajub, in a Tel-Aviv
apartment. She has also met with Dr. Saeb Ariqat, the PA
Minister for Municipal Affairs, in Jericho and with Rashid
Abu-Shabaq, deputy to Muhammed Dakhlan, head of the
Palestinian Security Services, in his Gaza offices. Hever's
list of meetings also includes dozens of meetings with Israeli
officials, including former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu,
who asked Ya'akov Peri - former head of the Israel Security
Agency who had been empowered by the government to handle the
subject of IDF POWs and MIAs - to handle the case of Guy
Hever; Arab MKs Azmi Bshara and Ahmed Tibi; IDF Director of
Military Intelligence, Amos Malka; Arieh Shumer, Director of
the President's Bureau; former Defense Minister, Yitzchak
Mordechai; Avraham Burg, Speaker of the Knesset. Hever has met
with IDF Chief of the General Staff, Shaul Mofaz, at his home.
Recently she met Prime Minister Barak who promised to raise
the issue of the possibility of Guy being held in Syria,
during the peace talks with Syria. Last week she attended the
wedding of the son of another Kochav Yair resident, Dany
Yatom, head of the political-security staff in the Prime
Minister's office. At the wedding she met with Brent
Schmidtbauer, the German mediator who in the past tried to
lend his assistance in the efforts to locate the whereabouts
of Ron Arad.
Life at the
Hever family home is standing still. The twins, Or and Shir,
now 14, do not speak of their older brother, whose photographs
fill the living room. Rina Hever harbors serious grievances
against the commanders of the IDF main unit for finding MIAs,
who she claims treated her and her family with disregard.
"Some IDF senior officials still treat me as if I were a
lunatic," she says. The Chief of the General Staff, however,
shows outstanding warmth and I can see in his eyes that he is
genuinely distressed by what we are going through." Hever
commends those who treat the mission of helping her find her
son as a "personal project." Among those is David Dadon, who
is in charge of the Syrian and Lebanese desk at the Israeli
Foreign Ministry and accompanies her in her meetings, even on
Saturdays or late at night; H., a former ISA top official with
a long and successful history of locating MIAs, assists on a
voluntary basis; Advocate Shimon Mizrahi, known for his role
as the eternal chairman of the Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball
team, a reservist in the IDF Investigating Military Police,
was appointed by the Defense Minister to voluntarily
coordinate the contacts between the Hever family and the IDF.
Hever maintained regular contact with a couple from central
Israel who had prayed for Guy's safety, but died last month,
one after the other. Rafi Kikos, who had led the search for
his daughter, the late Henit, is offering tips and advice. All
the clandestine contacts you have had so far have actually
brought about a certain progress in the investigation. Rina
Hever: "no breakthrough has been achieved so far, and no
information has been received, neither from the Palestinians
nor the Syrians, absolutely nothing." Discouraging, isn't
it?
"Before each meeting I feel hopeful that maybe I
would finally be able to further the investigation somewhat,
and that is why I go on." Do you have any new idea of your own
that might help further the investigation?
"I have requested that a reward be offered in the Arab press for
anyone who would provide information that would lead to a
breakthrough, but the IDF turned me down. Had it been
financially possible, we would have offered the reward
ourselves." Why are you the one leading the search rather than
your husband?
"Eitan, my husband, helps me, but if he were to devote himself to the matter as I do, he would not be able to run his clinic. That is why I am the one leading the
search." As a mother, what are your gut feelings?
"As time goes by it is becoming clear that the possibility
initially raised by the IDF, that Guy took his own life, is
unreasonable. When someone commits suicide they cannot make
themselves or their weapon disappear, and experience shows us
that eventually the body is always found. IDF soldier Leonid
Rosenkovitch who took his own life was eventually found by a
shepherd, even though he had shot himself to death in a
deserted area in the Negev. In Guy's case nothing has been
found, absolutely nothing, even though we have left no stone
unturned in the Golan Heights." "As a mother, I still dream
and hope that Guy would suddenly open the door and come home.
My gut feelings are that he might be held somewhere by some
hostile element, waiting for us to come to his rescue."