On Wednesday, I had the honour, along with 30 fellow employees, of
travelling to the area surrounding the Gaza border. I admit to having been slightly apprehensive regarding this trip as I didn't know how I would
react. I feel that it is incumbent upon Jews to visit sites that are
connected to our tradition and suffering; this is why I try to visit old
synagogues1
in European countries and
places2
connected to the Holocaust. The last time that I visited the Holocause
Museum in Jerusalem (maybe 20 years ago) was very moving and I cried a
little. For some reason, this trip didn't move me as much.
The first stop on the trip was 'morning coffee' at a bar in Sderot; on the
map, this town is the top-most green area. One can see how close it is to
the Gaza border (the grey area enclosed in a dotted line), and in the
morning of
October 73, tens of terrorists entered the town. There was a serious battle for
control of the town's police station, sited only about 100 metres from the
bar that we visited. Due to the damage done to the station, it has since
been knocked down, and a memorial has been created in its place.
From there, we travelled along the blood soaked Road 232, which is the
solid line on the map leading from Sderot down to the bottom left hand
corner of the map. Our destination was Kibbutz Nir Oz (marked in yellow on
the map); one quarter of the adult population of the kibbutz was killed, and
many more were taken as hostages. About half of the houses on the kibbutz
were burnt down, sometimes in order to 'smoke out' the residents and
sometimes simply as wanton violence.
There were wave after wave of terrorists and then Gaza residents who invaded
the kibbutz, so the damage differs from house to house. There was one path
through a residential area where all the houses on one side had been damaged
badly, whereas most of the houses on the other side seemed hardly to have
been touched. That doesn't mean to say that their contents were not looted.
There were flags placed in front of most the houses, either black or
yellow. The black flags represent the number of residents that were killed
and the yellow flags represent the number taken hostage. Some of the yellow
flags have black tags, representing hostages who were later killed in
captivity. One such victim was Yoram Metzger, aged 80; our visit was led by
his daughter in law, Ella. Amongst other things, she told us that the kibbutz
members (almost all now living for the time being in Kiryat Gat) were set to
discuss how many of the damaged buildings were to be torn down and how many
to be left as reminders of the blackest day in Israel's history, but that
the current prisoner exchange programme caused them to concentrate on that
(receiving the returning hostages) and putting aside the subject of
commemoration.
There were about another two groups being shown around the kibbutz while we
were there. I had been apprehensive that the kibbutz would be filled with
people examing the damaged sites but we were told that visits take place
only after 'a booking' has been made. Even so, there are kibbutz members who
requested that their houses not be entered.
Incidentally, the topology of Nir Oz is completely different from that of
my kibbutz: they have much more room and so have single floor houses,
although these seem to be relatively small. My kibbutz is built on the side
of a hill and so there isn't much room to spread out; most of the houses
(save the new ones being built) are two stories high and house four
families. The gardening on my kibbutz is much more intensive, but as my son
pointed out, no one has looked after the gardens of Nir Oz for the past
fifteen months.
From Nir Oz, we travelled to the site of the Nova festival massacre, which
is about halfway between Nir Oz and Sderot (i.e. we doubled back on road
232). Numerically, there were far more people killed at the Nova than
there were in Nir Oz, but somehow the emotional effect was lower. There
were also far more visitors at this site.
From the Nova, we continued our trip northwards to the graveyard where vehicles
involved in the fighting have been stored. Supposedly this is a temporary
location, but I can't see it being moved elsewhere. It's difficult to
choose which picture to show: those of cars riddled with bullets, those of cars with structural damage or just a general scene. I decided to
use the picture on the left that shows the car belonging to
Ben Shim'oni, who despite escaping the Nova massacre, chose to return to the inferno
three times to save friends and strangers, until he himself was hit by
gunfire. Under heavy fire, Ben managed to save 12 more people. In the
third round, he was hit and killed along with two other passengers, and
the third, Romi Gonen, was kidnapped to Gaza, and released in the
Hamas-Israel agreement in January 2025 (i.e. the Sunday prior to our
visit, a mere three days).
If there were many people at the Nova site, then there were even more at
this site, mainly groups of religious teenage girls who were being lectured
about the events that the site commemorates.
From this site we returned to Sderot for a disappoing lunch (five different
types of pasta) and then the long drive home.
I've delayed writing about this visit for a few days primarily because I
wanted to devote to it as much writing time as possible, unencumbered by
other activities. Whilst I may have captured fairly accurately what I
saw, I'm not sure that I captured what I felt. Maybe like our
guide at Nir Oz, I have become somewhat acclimatised to the events and what
has been left behind. I have no doubt, though, that it was very important to
go on the visit.
Bleeding heart liberals in Europe and elsewhere may say that the number of Israelis killed in this war (along with the 1200+ people who were killed, another 850 soldiers have fallen) is nothing compared to the number of Gaza residents killed, and that the damage done to several kibbutzim is nothing compared to the damage done to buildings in Gaza. Whilst this is true, I would like to point out that it wasn't us who invaded another country, it wasn't us who set fire to buildings in order to force the occupants out, it wasn't us who took hostages, ranging in age from a few months old baby to 80 year old persioners, and it wasn't us who use hospitals and schools as camouflaged sites for storing weapons and supplies, using these sites as a basis for firing rockets into Israel. Hamas has shown again and again its low regard for human lives, including those of their own people, and is still playing psychological tricks on us with regard to the agreements made for the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
I am sure that many people in Europe would act differently should Hamas be active on their borders or within their cities. The big mistake is in relating to Hamas in the same way that we relate to other people; Hamas has shown time and time again that they have different values
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