Playground in Mevaseret Zion

On Wednesday, June 11th, 2003 in the afternoon a suicide terrorist exploded on bus route 14 while it was going in Jaffa street near the Kelal center. The Terrorist boarded the bus dressed as an orthodox Jew wearing the typical cloths.

Seventeen people died on the bus, amongst the dead was Roee Eliraz, 21 years old while he was on his way to work as a security guard, a job he started only the day before.

 The butterfly is an important motive in Roi's commemoration.

On Butterfly’s Wings
Guy Eliraz was on year-end trip with his school on Wednesday, June 11, 2003. He fell asleep on the bus on the way home, and had a dream in which his brother Roi Haim appeared and said, “I need to leave now, but I promise I will be back on Friday to visit you.”
Guy and Roi were very close. But when guy woke up, the dream bothered him greatly. The bus driver turned on the radio around 6:00 in the evening, and they heard that there had been a bombing on a number 14 bus in Jerusalem. A few minutes later, Guy received a phone call that Roi was not answering his phone and might have been on the bus. By the time he got home, the family had already found out that Roi was killed. He was buried that night.
On Friday night as they were making Kiddush, a large butterfly entered the room and sat on Guy’s shoulder. It didn’t move for a few minutes regardless whether Guy moved or not. It then moved to Guy’s parents and siblings, and sat on each person’s shoulder in turn. It then went into Guy’s parents’ bedroom and sat on Guy’s mother’s pillow. It then returned to the living room and sat on the window blind, where it stayed for a while. It didn’t leave the house throughout the rest of the shiva.
When Roi’s tombstone was unveiled at the end of the 30-day mourning period, the image of a large butterfly was etched on the stone to mark the strange occurrence. From the family’s living room in Mevasseret Tzion, they can see the tombstone of their son in the Har Hamenuchot cemetery across the valley in Jerusalem.
During the year following Roi’s murder, the family built a park in Mevasseret Tzion called Gan Roi (Roi Park) in his memory. One of the slides in the park for kids to play on is in the shape of a butterfly.
At the dedication ceremony of the park on the first anniversary of Roi’s murder, dozens of children came from throughout the community and released balloons into the skies. The balloons flew upwards and on their own assumed the shape of a butterfly as they flew eastwards on the wind – toward the cemetery in Jerusalem.