‘Nothing Else Matters’: Metallica Song at Funeral of Israeli Hero, and Hostage, Yotam Haim

Heavy metal drummer Yotam Haim, 28, who escaped Hamas captivity, was buried Monday in Kibbutz Gvulot in southern Israel, three days after being killed accidentally by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in Gaza who had mistaken him for a terrorist.

Israeli Eurovision 2018 winner Netta Barzilai performs Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” at the funeral of Yotam Haim, Kibbutz Gvulot, Israel, December 18, 2023 (Breitbart News)

Haim had survived for more than 70 days after being abducted from Kfar Aza in the Hamas terror attack of October 7. He and farm worker Samar Fouad Talalka, 22, and engineering student Alon Lulu Shamriz, 26, survived together — and died together.

The Times of Israel noted:

Haim, a drummer for the heavy metal band Persephore, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7. After 70 days of captivity, he was shot dead alongside Alon Shamriz, 26, and Samar Fouad Talalka, 24, in northern Gaza’s Shejaiya neighborhood, after the three were mistakenly identified as a threat by IDF troops.

At a funeral imbued with musical tributes, Haim’s loved ones recalled his lifelong struggles with mental health, the joy that drumming had brought him and the painful final weeks of his life.

…

During this time, [his mother Iris] said, “everyone got to know you, a beautiful boy, with a gentle soul and blue eyes, who loved animals and was a very talented drummer. You became famous through your captivity, and you bring us hope for a better world. On the day of your freedom you left like a partisan, a partisan fighter from captivity, you didn’t agree to suffer any longer in the hands of murderers, you wouldn’t sit and wait.”

Several famous musicians paid tribute to Yotam Haim, including Israeli rock band The Backyard, who played Arik Einstein’s 1971 song “Whistling in the Dark”; and 2018 Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai, who sang Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” Barzilai’s own drummer is Yotam’s older brother.

Full disclosure: the author is distantly related via marriage to Yotam Haim.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.