Ono War Hero Graduates in Special Ceremony Organized By Law School Deans
Israel Today published an article about a recent Ono graduate entitled, “A hero with a gown: the Deans surprised Police Superintendent “A” who was wounded in the Kfar Aza battle, and awarded him his law degree in the hospital.”
The article summarizes: Three days after he finished the last assignment of his law degree at Ono Academic College, Police Superintendent “A” was sent to fight in the South. After learning he was wounded in battle, Ono’s Deans organized a special degree awarding ceremony held in the hospital’s rehabilitation ward. Police Superintendent “A” said, “They surprised us. I didn’t believe that what happened was possible.”
When Ono’s Deans heard about Police Superintendent “A”’s story, they prepared a surprise for him. They learned that Police Superintendent “A”, served as a platoon commander in an undercover unit of Israel’s Southern Police Force. When he was completing his last class assignment, he did not imagine that he would be getting his law degree in the hospital. After being seriously injured in the initial battles on October 7th, he was hospitalized for his wounds and later received his diploma directly from the Deans of Ono Academic College’s School of Law, while he was lying in the hospital.
Police Superintendent “A” recalled the horrific morning of October 7th. “I was at home in Yavne and I woke up to the air raid sirens. A few minutes later my commander decided to scramble our unit.
“One of the commanders in the unit said that he encountered terrorists in the city of Ofakim. I decided to speed there by car at 180 km/h. At the Shaar HaNegev crossing, I met one of my fighters, and we joined the National Police SWAT team together. We didn’t have our combat equipment and were only armed our personal defense pistols. We fought a tough battle. Numerous terrorists were killed and two of our fighters fell.”
From that moment, the first day of heroic battles began: “We arrived at the area of the police station in Sderot [which had been taken over by Hamas terrorists], where we received the equipment. Then one of our fighters also received a call about what was happening in to Kfar Aza where he lives. He informed me that there were terrorists in his town so we went to Kfar Aza village.”
“On the way, [we encountered Hamas fighters on the road]; the terrorists fired a burst of automatic weapons at our car. We got out, took positions, opened fire and eliminated the terrorists,” he recalls. “We arrived at Kfar Aza at ten in the morning and fought there for seven long hours.”
Police Superintendent “A”, together with his friends in the Border Police units, saved lives and rescued the wounded. At five in the evening “A.” was seriously wounded by two bullets in the chest and also received shrapnel in his eye. He was taken to the Sheba Medical Center. There, after a long operation, doctors managed to stabilize his condition and he has been in rehabilitation at the hospital ever since.
In the last few days, A’s family members contacted the School of Law at Ono Academic College and told them about what happened. In response, the current Dean, Dr. Elad Finkelstein, and former Dean, Prof. Yuval Elbashan, decided to award him his graduation diploma in a special ceremony held in the hospital’s rehabilitation department, in the presence of family members and the team of doctors and therapists.
“They surprised me,” he says, “It was very exciting, I didn’t believe it was possible. They really fooled me. My parents and family were also very excited.”
Prof. Yuval Elbashan, former dean of the School of Law at Ono Academic, has been providing close support of A. and his family since his serious injury. Elbashan says: “Conferring a degree is always an exciting moment, but this time it was more exciting than ever.”
“A. is a real hero, and more than the robe of justice brings honor to him, he and his behavior bring honor to the justice system. He brings honor to it and brings honor to all of us. Just a few weeks ago he was hovering between life and death and we all feared for him. Today we are all in tears of joy because of his miraculous recovery and his ability to have an experience that we never imagined would happen so quickly—to be awarded his law degree and be welcomed into the family of jurists.”
The entire Hebrew-language article, complete with photos and videos can be read here:
https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/education/article/14842774
