This story is about Eli and Yossi Sharabi, two brothers from Yemeni descent. They are the eldest and middle of three brothers who were born and grew up in kibbutz Be’eri. Eli, the eldest, married a British woman from Bristol called Lianne. Just like Thomas Hand, Lianne came to Israel as a kibbutz volunteer at age 19. That is when she met Eli Sharabi and decided to stay. They got married, had two lovely daughters and built a happy life together in kibbutz Be’eri.
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This is Eli with Lianne, Noya (16) and Yahel (13).
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And this is Yossi’s family. He married Nira Herman, a nurse. They had three beautiful daughters: Yuval (17), Ofir (14) and Oren (13). They lived their lives, went to work and to school, saw family and friends. Like all people everywhere.
Until October 7, 2023. Black shabbath, the destruction of kibbutz Be’eri at the hands of Hamas. Terrorists broke through the Gaza border, gunning down everyone they saw, and invaded the kibbutz. Heavily armed men went from house to house, hunting down Israelis, leaving a trail of murder and destruction. Eli and Lianne’s home was on the list, too. When the intruders broke in, Mocca, the family dog, ran at them barking. Hiding in their safe room, the family heard the gunmen shoot their dog and then laugh. This mental picture is burned into my brain and makes my blood run cold.
In interviews, Nira later said that Lianne texted her, saying: “Nira, I can hear them. They are here at our house. They are shooting and shouting: “Die Israel”. Please call for help.”
Nira did call for help, but it would not come until hours later. It was too late for Lianne, Noya and Yahel. They were murdered in such a brutal way that it took weeks for their remains to be definitively identified. I don’t know the details of what was done to them, and I prefer not to know. But Noya and Yahel, young teenage girls, could only be identified through DNA testing.
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Eli Sharabi lost his entire family on that horrific morning. But we don’t know whether he realizes they are dead. He was abducted by Hamas and there has been no contact with him whatsoever. We don’t know if he is alive at all, or if he will ever come home. But even if he does, he has no home anymore, no house, no kibbutz, no family. His entire life has been destroyed by the Death Eaters. I cannot imagine anything worse. My heart bleeds for Eli Sharabi.
The following image is from Lianne, Yahel and Noya’s funeral (in the Daily Mail).
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Yossi, Nira and their children were also hiding in their safe room. They could hear the terrorists outside, shouting and shooting. People started calling Nira, who is a nurse, with panicked requests for help, what to do for family members who had been shot. Nira tried to instruct them as well as she could without being able to leave her house and see the wounded people for herself. Lianne texted her, begging her to call for help. Ten minutes later, she lost contact with Lianne. Nira’s nephew called from the Supernova music festival, telling her they were under attack and he was coming to their kibbutz. Nira had to tell him not to come, that the terrorists were in Be’eri, too. Later, she heard that her nephew was killed at the site of Supernova.
To these people, it must have felt like the world was ending. The terror and despair they must have felt is unimaginable.
At 12:30, the Death Eaters reached Nira and Yossi’s house. They did the same thing as in Eli and Lianne’s home: they shot and killed their dog, Shoko, and laughed. Yossi then got up, walked out of the safe room and told the terrorists to take him and leave his family. In the documentary Burning in the hearts of Be’eri, Nira later described the following scene:
“They took us from the house, and they brought us downstairs to the garden. They took our phones with their weapons [aimed at us]. All three terrorists. They were dressed in black with the whole package and everything. (…) And they took pictures, a selfie, you know, to spread it all around. And they just took the flag. We had a flag of Israel down in the house, and they just ripped it and they started to smash it. And they start to yell in Arabic, “Down with Israel! This is Palestine! This is not Israel! Israel does not exist! Kill all the Jews!” “
The terrorists then told them to give them their car keys. They made Yossi Sharabi, Ofir Engel (Yuval’s boyfriend) and Amit Shani, their neighbour’s son, get into the car. Then, they drove away with the three Israelis as hostages. Nira and her daughters and their neighbour, Amit’s mother, stood there and cried, looking after the car that took their loved ones away.
Seven weeks later, in the ceasefire, minors Ofir and Amit were released. The video footage of the reunion of Ofir and his girlfriend, Yuval Sharabi, is so very touching. Amit’s grandmother, Simcha Shani, was shot in the stomach but survived the ordeal. The entire family is extremely lucky to all be alive and together.
Unlike the Sharabi family. Not only were Lianne, Noya and Yahel murdered, but both Eli and Yossi are still hostages. Nira and her daughters cannot return to Be’eri, their house has been burned to the ground. They stay in a hotel in Eilat, and try to survive the hours, days, weeks and months that they are apart from their husband and father. Nira says she has no idea why the terrorists didn’t simply shoot them all. They had no problems shooting other women and children.
Yossi and Eli’s younger brother, Sharon, supports them the best he can and campaigns for the release of his brothers. He keeps Shabbath and so he did not get any of the messages that his family sent him that day, until the evening, when he switched on his phone and saw what had happened to them. He says: “My job is to bring my brothers home.”
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I don’t know if Eli and Yossi Sharabi are alive or if they will ever come home. I hope and pray they are and they will. But what they will find if they do, will be incredibly hard for them.
#bringthemhome
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Update 17/1/24
With a heavy heart, I have to add here that Yossi Sharabi was murdered in Hamas captivity. This has been made public yesterday.
Hamas released a video on January 14, 2024, showing three hostages: Noa Argamani, Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky. They were forced to say that if Israel didn’t stop the war, they would die. Hamas ended the video with a nice little game: we got to guess who was going to be murdered that night.
Sadly, Noa was the only one who survived this demonic game.
I am heartbroken for Nira and her daughters. This family had to go through way too much.
I firmly believe that Hamas took out the best of us. They targeted the kibbutzim close to Gaza, where peace activist Vivian Silver lived, where human angels like Jimmy Pacheco and Angelyn Aguirre worked, and where Shoshan Haran and her family came from.
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Dr. Shoshan Haran, 67, comes from a family of highly educated, highly driven lifesavers. Her grandparents were orthopedic surgeons in Stuttgart, Germany, before the Second World War. They came to Israel to escape Hitler’s reign of terror and continued their work in the new country: they treated children with polio and severe injuries in the Alyn Hospital for disabled children. Their son, Avraham Havron, left the relatively wealthy and comfortable home of his parents in Jerusalem to help to establish the agricultural community of kibbutz Be’eri.
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Abraham Havron’s children, Shoshan, Lilach and Aviv, were born and raised in kibbutz Be’eri. Shoshan married Avshalom Haran. The couple lived in Be’eri and had 3 children together: Adi, Yuval and Shaked. These names will all come back later in this story.
Shoshan studied biology and plant protection in Jerusalem and started working at Hazera Genetics, a leading seed producing company. But after years of working in the seed industry, Shoshan wanted to use her knowledge to help people. She founded the non-profit organization Fair Planet, which develops high quality seeds specifically for African farmers. The NGO operates in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda and has helped thousands of farmers achieve much more successful harvests than before. This way, not only has Fair Planet improved the lives of the farmers themselves, but also the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who now have food to eat, instead of failed harvests and hunger.
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Shoshan travelled to Africa several times a year. Her father, Avraham, was so proud of her work that, at 91 years old, he decided to come with her on one of her field trips. Avraham Havron passed away at the age of 96 in 2022. It is a blessing that he did not have to live through the horror of October 7, 2023.
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Over the years, their succes grew. Some of the biggest seed companies in the world, like Bayer and Syngenta, started funding Fair Planet, because they are developing the African market, which is profitable for them. The NGO doesn’t only provide the farmers with seeds, but also with education and practical help from volunteers. With the assistance of this project, the farmers are able to produce up to six times more vegetables of better quality than before, which has a huge effect on entire communities. It is fair to say that Shoshan Haran’s work changed millions of lives for the better. How many of us can say that?
Of course, Hamas does not ask people what good they have done in the world. The terrorists, crazed and bloodthirsty, hopped up on a cocktail of drugs, didn’t care about anything or anyone. On October 7, kibbutz Be’eri was raided and destroyed by hundreds of inhuman demons from hell. Murdering, torturing, burning. Screaming about the greatness of their cruel god. The Death Eaters of our world, full of hate, sadism and cocaine. I cannot imagine anything more terrifying than that.
Shoshan’s husband, Avshalom Haran, was murdered in cold blood. So were her sister, Lilach Kipnis, her husband, Eviatar Kipnis, and Eviatar’s caretaker, Paul Vincent Castelvi. And Shoshan was abducted, together with six other members of her family: her daughter Adi Shoham, Adi’s husband Tal Shoham, their children Yahel (3) and Naveh (8), Avshalom’s sister Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Noam. Eleven members of the same family (including Paul) were missing or dead. Try to imagine it. I can’t. My brain just refuses to wrap itself around this idea.
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Shoshan and Lilach’s brother, Aviv Havron, found a blackened ruin where his sister’s house once stood. It had been blown up with explosives by the terrorists.
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For seven long weeks, Shoshan and her family members were hostages, hidden underground in the tunnels system of Gaza. They were kept in the dark, with very little food or water. They could not wash or brush their teeth. They had to stay quiet and speak in whispers. They were threatened, verbally and with weapons. Shoshan was the one who kept them all together, who told them to stay positive, that they would get out. And they did, on November 26. In Gazan clothes, accompanied by hooded, armed terrorists, who handed them over to the Red Cross. Finally, Shoshan’s brother and her two other children could hug her again. Yahel and Naveh could play again. They could eat and shower.
But not all of them. Tal Shoham, the children’s father, was not released. As I am writing this, on the last day of 2023, he is still imprisoned in Gaza. And Shoshan had to be told about the murder of her husband and sister. She didn’t know, she thought they had also been kidnapped. Like so many others, this family has been torn apart by the horrible crimes of Hamas on October 7.
But Shoshan Haran will come back from this, and she will continue her work at Fair Planet and save countless lives. Because that is who she is: the best of us.
Israel is home to more than 300,000 foreign workers. Many of those are Thai. 30,000 to 50,000 are Filipinos, who most often work as caregivers for elderly and disabled people. Many Filipinos live and work in other countries to take financial care of their families. They are called overseas foreign workers (OFW’s). They are educated according to the country they are aiming at, in courses where they learn the language alongside nursing. Israel is a popular destination for Filipino OFW’s. In Israel, they earn a salary many times higher than what they could earn in the Philippines, and they are treated better than in countries like Saudi Arabia. Some Filipinos have children back home, who are in the care of their grandparents. To take care of their families financially, these parents give up raising their own children, to work in Israel and make sure their kids have a home, food and an education. They make the ultimate personal sacrifice to take care of their loved ones – and of our elderly. For that only, they deserve all our respect and admiration.
But apart from that, Filipino caregivers are most often lovely people and wonderful nurses, who decicate themselves to the care of their patients. They often stay with the same patient for years and become a member of their families. The elderly or ill person whose family can afford hiring a Filipino nurse is truly a lucky human being.
On October 7, four Filipino nationals were killed and two taken hostage. These are their stories.
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Jimmy Pacheco
Gelienor (Jimmy) Pacheco had been in Israel for five years. Four of those years he had cared for Amitai Ben Zvi (80) in kibbutz Nir Oz. He called his patient Abba (dad). The relationship between the two of them was very good and the family loved Jimmy. Amitai’s daughter said that he took care of her father “with quiet, admirable devotion, always attentive to his needs and supportive in countless ways.” Jimmy’s wife and three children lived in the Philippines and kept in contact with him through video calls.
On Black Shabbath, when Hamas terrorists attacked kibbutz Nir Oz, Jimmy was there with his patient. The invaders shot Amitai, an 80 year old man with Parkinson’s, point blank. Jimmy managed to call his friends to tell them his Abba had been murdered and he was being kidnapped. Two Hamas videos showed Pacheco handcuffed and surrounded by armed men.
Jimmy was a hostage in the tunnels of Hamas for 49 days. He describes the terror and harsh conditions he went through on Ynet, telling them how he ate toilet paper because he was so determined to survive, and how thoughts of his children and his Catholic faith pulled him through. Pacheco was released on November 24, together with 10 Thai nationals, as part of an agreement with the Thai and Filipino governments. Jimmy went back to visit Nir Oz and the grave of Amitai Ben Zvi. He showed the destruction in a live video on Facebook.
On December 18, Jimmy Pacheco finally landed in the Philippines and was reunited with his family. The good news is that he will never have to leave them again. He will get lifetime benefits from Israel. To us, he is a hero.
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Noralyn Babadilla
Noralyn Babadilla, 60, lived and worked in Israel for over 30 years. She married an Israeli, Gideon Babani, and gained dual Israeli-Filipino citizenship. She and her husband lived in Yehud, a town in central Israel. On October 6, they went to visit friends in kibbutz Nirim in the Gaza Envelope, where they stayed overnight. Early in the morning of October 7, the kibbutz was attacked by Hamas terrorists. At around 7 AM, Noralyn called her brother and told him terrorists were shooting at them, and she was afraid. That was the last anyone heard of her.
Gideon Babani was found murdered in kibbutz Nirim, but Noralyn was missing. No one knew for certain what had happened to her. Her brother and sisters were desperately worried. Fortunately, on November 28, Noralyn was released by Hamas, together with a small number of other women and children. She had been a hostage all that time. She was seen in the videos of the release of the hostages that day, assisting an elderly woman.
Noralyn survived her ordeal in reasonably good health, and was reunited with her siblings, who also live and work in Israel. But her husband and her friends were murdered before her eyes. How do you even begin to recover from such a terrible trauma?
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Angelyn Aguirre
The story of Angelyn Aguirre is desperately sad. It is one of those that doesn’t leave me alone. Just look at that beautiful, sweet face. Angie was 33 years years old. She had been working in Israel for seven years, but she had just got married and in a few months’ time, she was going to return to the Philippines to be with her husband and start a family.
Angie took care of Nira Ronen (86) in kibbutz Kfar Aza. When the terrorists ransacked and burned their way through the kibbutz, Angie took Nira into the safe room of the house and tried to hold the door closed, while armed men on the other side forced it open and opened fire at the two defenseless women inside the room.
The mental image is mind-boggling. It is just beyond anything I can ever understand. How can things like this have happened? What kind of soulless beings gun down an 86 year old lady and her young Filipino carer in their home? What kind of unimaginable evil took over the minds of those invaders? I want to know. But it breaks my heart, every time again, to read and research these stories.
After the bodies of Nira and Angie were found, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, wrote on X/Twitter: “Despite having a chance to flee the Hamas terror attacks, Angeline showed unbelievable humanity and loyalty by remaining Nira’s side during the violence, resulting in both of them being brutally murdered by Hamas. Unimaginable honor in the face of evil.”
Later, in an emotional interview with ABS-CBN News, Hassan-Nahoum said: “The Filipino community in the State of Israel is very much loved and appreciated. They take care of our elderly and they take care of special needs children. My mother was taken care of by two wonderful nurses and I owe them so much. There are so many people in this country that owe the Filipino community so much. For us, it’s as painful to lose one of you as it is to lose one of us.”
I agree completely.
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Paul Vincent Castelvi
Paul Castelvi (42) lived and worked in kibbutz Be’eri. He was the caretaker of Eviatar Kipnis, who suffered from an auto-immune disease. Paul was the main breadwinner for his entire family back in the Philippines; his parents, his three siblings and his nieces and nephews. He was married to Jovelle Santiago, who also lived and worked in Israel. Jovelle was pregnant with the couple’s first child. The baby was due in November, and Paul’s employers had given him and his wife tickets to fly home for Christmas, to surprise their families and show them the new baby.
Instead, Jovelle arrived alone at Manila Airport on December 23, holding her newborn baby and an urn containing Paul’s ashes.
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Paul was murdered by Hamas together with his wheelchair-bound patient, Eviatar Kipnis, and Eviatar’s wife, Lilach Leah Kipnis. Many of their family members were abducted, including young children.
Yotam Kipnis, the son of Eviatar and Lilach, wrote on Facebook: “Paul was an incredible man, and I have still not come to terms with his death. It’s unimaginable, and I can’t believe that I won’t meet him again… Rest in Peace, Paul Vincent Castelvi.”
After learning of Paul’s death, Jovelle Santiago wrote on Facebook: “I don’t know how and where I am now to start when you are gone — so hard. I feel like I lost half of my life. Guide us always with our baby boy.”
After giving birth to her baby, who she called Jhayzen Paul Castelvi, she wrote: “Worth every pain… Worth the wait. Thank you for coming to our life… Tatay is surely smiling at us from above.”
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Loreta Alacre
Loreta Alacre (49) was dearly beloved both in Israel and in the Philippines. She was the breadwinner for her entire extended family back home – most of her seven siblings and their children. Loreta financed the building of their house and the education of her nieces and nephews, and paid for hospital bills, birthdays, weddings, baptisms and funerals. The whole family was dependent on Loreta, who dedicated her entire life to them and to her patients. She worked overseas for 19 years, of which almost 15 years in Israel.
On October 8, Loreta’s employer, Noam Solomon, wrote the following on Facebook (my translation):
“Lori, my devoted caregiver of the last 6 years is missing! She was last seen yesterday in the early morning hours, between Netivot and Ashkelon. Her partner, who was with her, told a friend on the phone that he had been shot in the back. We located him in the Barzilai hospital, but he had no knowledge of where my dear, beloved Lori is. If anyone knows, hears or sees anything, please let me know in a private message as soon as possible.”
On October 11, Loreta’s body was found. The news caused anguish for her Filipino family as well as for her Israeli family. Lori had been the carer of Noam Solomon’s grandmother for many years. After her grandmother passed away, Noam, who had become disabled after an accident, asked Lori to be her caretaker. After receiving the news of Lori’s death, Noam posted (again, translation is mine):
“My dear, beloved Lorie Alacre, an inseparable part of my family for over 14 years, and for the last 5 years my right hand, my confidante, was sadly murdered in cold blood by Hamas killers on the cursed Sabbath. May her memory be blessed.”
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Slowly, the events that led to Lori’s death were pieced together. Lori had been travelling to Ashkelon, where Noam lives, together with her partner. They took a sherut minibus with several other people. On the way, the terrorists stopped the minibus and shot its occupants. Lori did not survive the shooting.
Loreta’s family in the Philippines will get aid and benefits from Israel, as all dependants of terror victims do. But nothing can make up for the loss of this amazing, caring human being. Hamas took away the very best of us on that terrible day.
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Grace Cabrera
This is another story of love, loyalty and kindness in the face of unimaginable terror. Grace Cabrera (45) lived and worked in kibbutz Be’eri as the caretaker of Aviva Sela (95). She had parents, siblings, a husband and a child back in the Philippines, who depended on her salary. Her sister, Mary June, also lived in kibbutz Be’eri.
On the morning of October 7, when it was clear that their kibbutz was under attack, Grace took her patient into the safe room of their house and held the door closed for hours (these doors don’t have locks). Days later, security cameras showed that Hamas broke into the room and held Grace and Aviva at gunpoint on the porch. The porch of this house was apparently used as headquarters and weapons assembly. At the end of the day, Grace was taken by the terrorists, leaving 95 year old Aviva alone in the swing chair on the porch.
Aviva does not remember much, but she remembers deciding to leave the kibbutz. She took her walker and started walking, without her glasses or hearing aids. At some point, someone from the kibbutz took her into their car, and she called her daughter, Osnat Weinberg. When her family came to pick her up, they found the basket of her walker packed with everything she needed, including medication and food. “Only Grace could have gotten her ready like that,” Osnat said.
Grace’s body was found on October 19. She had been shot and dumped by the terrorists. Words fail me.
Osnat Weinberg said of Grace:
“Her composure, her wisdom and her best intentions for my mother were far beyond the realm of ordinary. She was simply an angel with her feet on the ground. What a good soul, how wise… we are so thankful to the wonderful Grace who became part of our family, and we are crying over her loss.”
Mary June Prodigo, Grace’s sister, wrote on Facebook : “No words can explain the pain I feel right now… I lost my sister/best friend. Now everything is gone… all the happy memories will be replaced by pain.”
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There are more stories of the way Filipino caregivers protected their charges. There is a story of a carer who somehow managed to bribe the terrorists with money. Both she and her patient escaped with their lives.
I am heartbroken that they had to go through this. I am so sad for their families. And I am beyond furious that the evil incarnate called Hamas did this to them, and to us. That anger is what fuels me to keep writing. This article was exceptionally hard to write. The cruelty and sadism of the Death Eaters stands in such heavy contrast to the kindness and sacrifice shown by the Filipinos. It’s like good and evil faced each other that day.
Grace, Loretta, Paul and Angie were killed ruthlessly. But they left their impression on the world. Their love, kindness and energy lives on in the memories of both their Filipino and Israeli families, and in their children. And in the collective memory of Israel and the world. We will always remember that they were good, and kind, and protective of their patients. Hamas is their polar opposite, and their days are numbered. They will pay for what they did to these innocent people.
Vivian Silver was born in 1949 in Winnipeg, Canada, and immigrated to Israel in 1974. She settled in kibbutz Gezer and soon became the leader of the community. She was an energetic person with strong beliefs and a natural sense of justice. In the early days, Vivian activated for gender equality and women’s rights. She worked in the Knesset for the Committee of the Advancement of Women in Work and Economy, and she founded the United Kibbutz Movement’s Department to Advance Gender Equality.
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In 1990, Vivian and her husband moved to kibbutz Be’eri with their two sons. It was there, in close proximity to Gaza and the Bedouin community of Israel, that she became a peace activist. Together with Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, an Arab Israeli woman, she founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation. This centre focuses on improving Arab-Jewish relations and a better understanding between Palestinians and Israelis. In 2010, they received the Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East.
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Apart from her work in the kibbutz and with the Centre, Vivian also volunteered with Road to Recovery, a project that transports sick people from Gaza to hospitals in Israel. In 2014, after another war with Gaza, she founded Women Wage Peace. This organization brings together women of different backgrounds and strives for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The organization has more than 20,000 members. They organize rallies, marches and other activities to pressure the Israeli government to work towards peace. Vivian also joined in the protests against Benjamin Netanyahu and his government and the planned judicial overhaul, as many Israelis did (including me). She was strongly opposed to Netanyahu’s politics.
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On October 4, 2023, just three days before Hamas’ attack on Israel, Woman Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, a Palestinian organization, joined together in a march for peace in Jerusalem. Vivian, 74 years old, was there, as always.
On October 7, Vivian Silver was alone at her home in kibbutz Be’eri. When she realized that the kibbutz was under attack by terrorists, she hid in a closet and began texting her family and friends. Her son describes their text messages. She told him that she loved him, and then she wrote: “They’re inside the house. It’s time to stop joking and to say goodbye.”
Her son wrote: “I love you mum, I’m with you.”
She answered: “I feel you.”
That was Vivian’s last message. After that, there was silence.
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In the evening, Vivian’s house was found completely trashed and burned out. Vivian was nowhere to be found and she was assumed to be a hostage. But five weeks later, Vivian’s remains were finally identified in her house. She had been murdered in cold blood and burned to ashes, by the very people she had worked so hard, all her life, to help and to forge bonds with.
Hamas didn’t care who Vivian was. It didn’t matter to them that she had dedicated her life to peace and better treatment of the Palestinians. They couldn’t care less. And that is because they do not want peace. Their goal is to destroy the Jews, not to make peace with them. Vivian was their enemy.
Vivian was mourned intensely by many. She was loved fiercely by hundreds of people and admired by thousands. Her funeral was attended by all her friends, her family and all the women and men she inspired, of many different backgrounds. Her son, Jonathan Zeigen, said: “It was not just me that was orphaned. The community you helped was as well. Your friends were orphaned. This country you adopted at a young age was orphaned. And your movement was orphaned. The movement of peace.”
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Women Wage Peace promised that the peace movement was not dead. That they would continue their work without Vivian. They knew that even now, especially now, Vivian would be calling for peace, for agreement, for understanding.
Vivian was an immeasurably better person than me. I have always believed that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was possible. That we just had to get rid of our rotten government, implement the two-state solution, and we would be able to achieve peace. After all, the Palestinians are just people, like us. Why would they not want peace? They just want to live their lives, like we do.
But now, I’m not so sure. I did not reckon with the pure hate the Palestinians have for us. How much Hamas controls their lives. How they are groomed and brainwashed since early childhood to hate and fear Jews. How they are told to sacrifice their lives to kill Jews. How can you make peace with people whose only goal in life is to kill you?
Still, I admire Vivian Silver, and all that she stands for. Rest in peace, Vivian, or, as one of your friends put it: Rest in power.
One fifth of the population of Israel are Israeli Arabs. Some prefer to be called Palestinian Israelis. Most of them are Muslims, some are Christians and some are Druze. Some are Bedouins, a tribe of nomadic Arabic people. Some live in predominantly Arab towns, like Nazareth, and others in mixed cities, like Haifa. In the South, there are Bedouin towns and cities, like Rahat.
And no, there is no apartheid. Israeli Arabs have the same rights and opportunities as Jewish Israelis. Arabic is one of the official languages of Israel. My kids learn Arabic in school (although they’re not very good at it). There are Arabic political parties. Arabs can and do enlist in the Israeli army, although it is not compulsary for them. Arabs study in universities and hold respected positions in Israeli society. I’ve been treated by Arab doctors and brought my sick animals to Arab veterinarians. Also, Israelis LOVE Arabic food. Arabic restaurants are extremely popular. I love them myself, too.
Obviously, that’s not to say that we’re living in a perfect utopia where Jews and Arabs always get along great and everything goes well. Palestinian Israelis often feel conflicted. Many of them have family in Gaza and the West Bank. They often don’t feel heard and represented in a country that is first and foremost Jewish. I can understand that. As a non-Jew, I feel like that sometimes, myself (although I know it’s not the same). Of course there are clashes, there can be hate and ugliness (on both sides), discrimination and prejudice. In some Arab towns there is gang activity, which the Israeli police can’t really get a grip on. But show me a country where all these things do not happen. In this post, I want to focus on the positive.
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After October 7, Palestinian Israelis stood together with Jews against Hamas. They, too, had suffered losses. 24 Israeli Arabs had been killed and 9 taken hostage. Some Arabs did downright heroic things to protect their Jewish neighbours. On the 9th of October, a famous Arab Israeli vlogger, Nuseir Yassin, also known as Nas Daily, wrote this on Twitter/X:
“For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like…wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word “Israel” and call themselves “Palestinian” only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So I decided to mix the two and become a “Palestinian-Israeli” I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be “invaded” like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets. 900 Israelis died so far. More than 40 of them are Arabs. Killed by other Arabs. And even 2 Thai people died too. And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel. That’s where all my family lives. That’s where I grew up. That’s the country I want to see continue to exist so I can exist. Palestine should exist too as an independent state. And I hope to see the country thrive and become less extreme and more prosperous. I love Palestine and have invested in Palestine. But it’s not my home. So from today forward, I view myself as an “Israeli-Palestinian”. Israeli first. Palestinian second. Sometimes it takes a shock like this to see so clearly.”
(Obviously, this was before the real numbers of dead and wounded were known. 1200 people died, of whom 24 Arabs and 39 Thais.)
Another famous Arab Israeli, Yoseph Haddad, news correspondent and co-existence activist, told us the story of Masad Armilat, an Israeli Arab who worked at a gas station near the town of Sderot. On October 7, Masad heard gunshots. But instead of hiding, he ran towards the sound. He saw people fleeing and other people lying on the ground wounded. He collected as many people as he could and brought them all into the gas station. He locked the door behind them and piled gas balloons against it, so if the terrorists shot at it, the balloons would explode. And when the terrorists did come to the door, they saw the gas tanks and decided not to risk it. This is how Masad Armilat saved the lives of 14 people.
Afterwards, Masad said: “We are all one people, it doesn’t matter if we are Arab or Jewish.” Someone give this young man a medal!!
Another such hero was Awad Darawshe. He was an Israeli Arab paramedic, who worked at the Supernova festival that day. He thought he’d have to treat cuts and bruises, maybe a case of overheating. But instead, he found himself in the middle of a chaotic hellscape. Terrorists rained bullets into the crowd, grabbed young girls, stabbed people and hurt them in any way they could. Awad could have run, but he didn’t. He stayed and treated as many wounded people as he could. Until he was shot himself. He died on the battlefield of Supernova, to save others. His death is a tragedy. We desperately need people like him in our society.
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Then, there is the heartbreaking story of Hamid Abu Arar, whose wife was shot point blank by Hamas terrorists, but who, with his baby in his arms, still managed to warn a group of Israeli soldiers about the ambush they were about to walk into. I will let him tell his own story:
And here is another story. It’s the story of Aya Meydan, a young woman from kibbutz Be’eri, and a Bedouin family, who saved her and at least 30 other people. The family is called Alkrenawi. Here are their voices:
There are many more such stories. They are heartbreaking, but incredible, wonderful and inspiring at the same time. They tell the story of very different people, who came together and helped each other through something horrific and traumatic. Who stood together and said: No, I do not stand for this. This is what happens when people are humans first, and Muslims, Jews, Christians and everything else later. Like the people of Israel are now doing. And this is why Hamas will lose this war and will be destroyed.
This is the story of Emily Hand. It will shatter your heart and then put it back together again. Partly, at least. Emily saw and experienced things no child should ever have to go through. She wasn’t the only one. But I feel a special connection to her and her father, because they are so much like me.
Emily is nine years old. She is the daughter of Thomas Hand, who is Irish and came to Israel as a kibbutz volunteer. Like I did. Thomas volunteered on kibbutz Be’eri and met a woman called Narkis, who he married and had two children with: Eden and Natali. The family lived in Be’eri. Later in life, when the children were teenagers, Thomas and Narkis divorced. Thomas met Liat Korenberg and they had a daughter together: Emily Tony Korenberg Hand. Sadly, Liat died of cancer when Emily was only two years old. So Emily lived alone with her father in kibbutz Be’eri. But she also spent a lot of time with Thomas’ ex-wife, Narkis, and her half-siblings, Eden and Natali. Narkis was like a mother to Emily. The family might have been unusual, but they were happy and close. This beautiful picture from Narkis’ facebook page shows that. In the photo, Narkis, Eden, Natali, Thomas and Emily are all sitting around the dinner table together. I can’t imagine a better way to be co-parents.
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On October 7, 2023, Emily was at a sleepover at the house of her friend, Hila Rotem. At 6 in the morning, the terrorists reached the kibbutz. In interviews, Emily’s father describes locking himself into the safe room in his house, hearing the terrorists outside, and exchanging text messages with his ex-wife. He describes the terror and helplessness he felt, knowing he couldn’t protect his daughter. If he had gone outside, he would have been murdered, which would not help Emily.
When at the end of the day, finally, the IDF regained control over the area, kibbutz Be’eri was a smoking, bloodstained ruin. Thomas had survived. But Emily was gone. So were her friend Hila and Hila’s mother, Raaya. And Narkis Hand had been murdered in her house. The happy blended family had been torn apart, half of it gone. The pain this kibbutz went through is indescribable. More than 120 people were brutally murdered and another 29 taken hostage.
Thomas was told that Emily was dead, that her body had been found. His first reaction was relief. He thought that being abducted to Gaza would have been a fate worse than death. He said in the Daily Mail: “They’d have no food. They’d have no water. She’d be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people, and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possibly years to come.”
But the initial report was wrong. Emily’s remains were not found, and later she was seen in security footage, being loaded into the bed of a terrorist truck with Hila and Raaya Rotem, and driven away. Thomas’ worst fear had come true: Emily was one of the hostages. But at the same time, he had been given hope again. Emily might come back home.
Time passed. Thomas and his adult children campaigned for the release of the hostages. They flew to London and Ireland and gave interviews. Emily turned 9 years old in the tunnels of Hamas, but she had no idea it was her birthday.
Then, after eight long weeks, a ceasefire was negotiated and an agreement was reached for some of the hostages to be freed. Emily was on the list but didn’t come home the first day. But finally, on November 25, after 49 days of captivity, Emily Hand was released into the embrace of her father.
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I will never forget sitting in front of the tv, every evening of the ceasefire, desperately tired but refusing to go to bed until I knew who was coming home that day, and until I had seen them escorted into Israel by the Red Cross, and reunited with their family. The tears I cried every evening, happy tears but also tears of sadness, for those who didn’t come home, and those who would never come back again. Seeing Emily run to her father, and seeing Thomas’ smile, was everything. It healed something in me.
Emily was released together with her friend, Hila Rotem. The girls had clung together in the long weeks of captivity, under the care of Hila’s mother, Raaya. Raaya was not released that day, but fortunately, a few days later, she was. There was no rhyme or reason for that, apart from Hamas’ psychological warfare tactics – breaking up families and putting them through mental anguish is their favourite thing to do. Apart from causing death and destruction. They are Death Eaters.
This picture shows Emily and Hila walking hand in hand to the Red Cross ambulance, flanked by armed and hooded terrorists.
Emily had gone through hell and come back from it. But her pain is not over. Far from it. First, she had to be told that Narkis Hand, her second mother, was dead.
Narkis Hand was 54 years old when she was killed. She was described as a kind and generous person and a wonderful mother. She loved dancing and travelling and was the centre of her blended family. She leaves a gaping hole in her community.
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Since Emily has been back, she has told her family bits and pieces about her experience in the tunnels of Gaza – a place she calls “the box”. There was no sense of time in the darkness. She thought she had been there for a year. She thought her father had been kidnapped as well and was held somewhere else. She had lost weight and was very pale. And she whispered. The children had been threatened and told to be quiet, so she only spoke in whispers. She had learned how to say “be quiet!” in Arabic. She cries at night, for her stepmother, for her friends, for the trauma she went through. But she is alive, she is safe, and she will be ok again.
The Irish Prime Minister described Emily as a child “lost and found” – an unfortunate choice of words, that doesn’t even begin to describe the reality of what Emily went through. She was stolen in the middle of a massacre, abducted and held hostage underground for 49 days, then finally released under immense pressure. This could have been me, my child, or any of my friends. By pure chance of geography, it was not. But Emily and Thomas are forever etched onto my heart.
On October 7, 2023, several kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz) in the immediate surroundings of the Gaza strip were raided by Hamas terrorists. The kibbutzim Be’eri, Nir Oz, Nahal Oz, Kfar Aza, Alumim, Nir Yitzhak, Magen, Sufa and Re’im were invaded, massacred and burned. The singed ruins of the once lively communities now stand silent and deserted.
So what’s a kibbutz? That’s some sort of socialist commune, right? Some sort of Soviet experiment that Russian Jews brought to Israel. Excuse me, Russian Zionists. They must have stolen the land from poor Palestinians and brought their racist, communist ideology with them. Right?
Wrong. On every account. Let me tell you what kibbutzim really are, and their history. What’s my authority for telling this story? I live in one. I have lived in a kibbutz for twenty years. I know how they work. I know the good and the bad, the beauty and the ugliness inside out.
A kibbutz is an agricultural community based on equality and sharing of resources. The word “kibbutz” literally means “gathering”. The first ever kibbutz was founded in 1910, long before the state of Israel existed, even before the British Mandate existed. The land now known as Israel/Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. Jews and Arabs both lived in the area. Since the late 19th century, a steady trickle of Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants had been coming into Palestine, fleeing from the frequent pogroms. (A pogrom is a violent attack on Jewish people, with the aim of killing them, seizing their possessions and expelling whoever is not dead.)
Palestine in that time was a harsh environment. Some parts were hot, dry and rocky, and other parts were swampy and full of malaria mosquitoes. Individual people didn’t manage to make a living from the land. The only way to survive was to stick together and to form collectives. Groups of Jews bought land together to establish farms. Bought it. They bought the land, they did not steal it. Yes, I know. Astonishing!
The first kibbutz was Degania (cornflower). It still exists, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. More kibbutzim followed. People bought land collectively and shared everything equally: work, food, housing, money. This way of living and farming was successful because people worked together and shared labour and expenses, while equally sharing in the harvest and the profit (if any). These first immigrants were from Russia and Europe, so the kibbutzim that were founded in this early period consisted mainly of Ashkenazi Jews. The wave of immigration of Mizrahi Jews from the Arab countries came much later. They were also largely secular. Kibbutzim are still predominantly non-religious.
Over time, the kibbutz socialist ideology developed: everyone had to contribute equally and was rewarded equally. Meals were eaten together in the dining hall and holidays were celebrated collectively. Children lived separately from their parents in the “children’s house”. Both parents went out to work the land, while other kibbutz members looked after the children. Kibbutz leaders were elected democratically and every decision was made by voting. Everything was owned collectively and each member got the same salary, no matter what job they did.
In the 1960’s and 70’s, this communal style of living appealed to the flower-power generation in Europe and the USA. It became popular for Jewish and non-Jewish young people from all over the world to travel to Israel and volunteer on a kibbutz for some time, sharing in the work and the unique way of life of the kibbutzniks (kibbutz members). In fact, a number of famous people were at some point in their life kibbutz volunteers, like Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Dylan, Sigourny Weaver, Simon le Bon, Bernie Sanders and Boris Johnson.
This is how I ended up there. I’m one of the last foreign volunteers to come to Israel. I went for a kibbutz experience in 1999, all wide-eyed and eager and interested. It was honestly one of the best times of my life. Working in the fields, making friends with kibbutzniks and other volunteers from all over the world, travelling and experiencing new things every day.
Then, in 2000, the Second Intifada started. This was a wave of violence directed at Israelis from Palestinians, in the form of suicide bombings, shootings and stabbings. A total of 773 Israeli civilians were killed in this way over the course of 5 years. Israel became a no-go area for foreigners. The stream of volunteers from Europe and the USA, Japan and Korea dried up. Israeli kibbutzim began to rely heavily on Thai foreign workers in agriculture. No young, idealistic people wanted to come for a volunteer kibbutz experience anymore.
Except me. I never left. I had fallen in love with a kibbutznik and married him. We lived, worked and raised our children in that same kibbutz. My husband was born and raised here, and so was his father. My father-in-law was born in 1945 in Israel, to refugees from the Holocaust in Poland. His childhood was far from easy, I would even say traumatic. At that time, children were separated from their parents at 6 weeks old. They went to live in the “children’s house”, where they were taken care of by nannies, so their parents could go and work on the land. They had no choice. Their life was hard work, poverty and war, and they did what they had to, to survive. My father-in-law saw his parents a total of two hours a day. He remembers being jealous of the dog, because the dog could stay and sleep at home, while he had to go back to the children’s house.
The separation of families was one of the hardest things to hear about and one of the dark sides of kibbutzim. Many children grew up disconnected and insecurely attached. Fortunately, this changed in the early seventies. My husband and his siblings lived with their parents, although they spent a lot of their time in daycare, at school and in after-school groups. This was the kibbutz mindset: everyone worked hard, men and women, and children were cared for collectively. My husband remembers his childhood as a great time, always in a gang of friends, playing sports, going on adventures, celebrating holidays.
When I came to the kibbutz, life was still very much communal. People ate in the dining hall, put their laundry in to be washed in the shared laundrette, drove cars that belonged to the kibbutz (you had to put in a request if you wanted a car to go somewhere), and even shared the traditional blue work clothing. Everyone got the same salary, from the dishwashers to the factory manager.
But that way of life was starting to fall apart at the seams. The flipside of sharing everything is losing freedom and individuality. Young kibbutzniks were not happy with the restrictions put on them. They had to work in the kibbutz, they couldn’t own a car or travel abroad when they wanted to. There were so many things they had to do: go to school, work, do kibbutz chores (kitchen duty etc), serve in the army… They longed to break free. They saw their friends from towns make their own money, buy their own cars, own their own houses. They wanted to study, work in hightech, travel the world and be successful. Not break their backs in the cow shed or on the cotton fields, like their parents had done.
So in the end, capitalism won out. Most kibbutzim started the privatization process and became more like regular villages or neighbourhoods. But figuring out who owns what and who deserves what is no easy task. Our kibbutz’s dining hall is closed. The laundrette is now a corner shop. The childrens’ house has been converted to rented appartments. Most people work outside the kibbutz and own their own house. But the process was extremely slow and difficult and came with a lot of arguments, fallings out, people quitting or getting fired, outside interference, anger and frustration.
And that’s the other thing. See, people get fed up with each other when they have to see each other day in, day out. You can’t escape each other. Our kibbutz is very small and everyone knows each other. Not only that, but everyone knows everything about each other. The good, the bad and the ugly. It’s kind of like a never ending family party, where you cannot escape the creepy uncles, the bitchy cousins, the complaining old aunts. Nothing is a secret. And nobody is perfect. Everyone has things they prefer not to let the whole family know. Well, too bad. Gossip is currency. Also, no matter how much you like someone, after meeting them on the kibbutz paths five times in the same day, you duck behind a fence so you don’t have to say: “Ah haha, we meet again, next time coffee!” Again. For the millionth time.
But in the end, I love my kibbutz. And no matter how often I argue with my neighbours or grit my teeth over people driving their cars on my grass, I love my kibbutz family. Some of them have died in terror attacks or in wars. Some of them are fighting in Gaza as I am writing this. After October 7, this tsunami of grief and fear has bound us together like never before.
Here’s to kibbutz Be’eri, to Kfar Aza and Nir Oz. Here’s to all those kibbutzim that were overrun, massacred and burned. Hamas will not win. Kibbutzniks are some of the toughest people alive. They will come back and live there again, work the land and honour their dead. As they have always done, since the beginning.
I’m a true crime fan. I have followed the true crime community for years. The psychology behind the terrible stories is fascinating. What makes murderers and kidnappers tick? Why do they do what they do? What made them this way? And who were their victims? How do their loved ones deal with something so dark and awful?
Then, true crime happened to me.
This story was a letter that I wrote on November 7, 2023, exactly a month after the terrible, traumatic event that changed all of our lives forever. I sent this letter to all my favorite true crime podcasters and YouTubers, who I have watched and listened to for years. I have supported them, encouraged them, defended them and donated to them. Now, I felt like I needed them to support me.
None of them answered me or acknowledged my plea in any way. None of them expressed sympathy or addressed the living nightmare we have experienced and are still experiencing. Not one true crime YouTuber has told our horror stories. By now, I realize that they are not going to. So I decided to do it myself. This is the letter I sent to them.
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I want to tell you a story. It is a very, very shocking and gruesome story. I will only tell you the outlines, because the details will give you nightmares forever. To me, this is true crime at its most horrific, most devastating and most… True. Every single word of this is true, and there is video evidence for all of it.
On October 7 of this year, the south of my country was invaded by thousands of terrorists. The attack came out of nowhere and we were all caught off guard. They drove in with trucks and cars and motorcycles, sailed in with boats over sea and even flew in with paragliders. The terrorists broke into people’s homes and murdered more than 1200 people. The victims were men and women, children and babies, elderly and disabled people. Many of them were tortured, mutilated, beheaded, or burned alive. Parents were brutally murdered in front of their children. Parents were made to watch as their children were killed. Their houses were then set ablaze. Many people died in the flames and were burned beyond recognition.
Other terrorists drove further into the country and came to a music festival, where many young people were dancing and enjoying themselves. They shot as many people as they could and grabbed and gangraped many of the young women, until they died, until their legs and pelvises were broken. The naked, lifeless bodies were then piled on trucks, some missing limbs or heads, and paraded around for everyone to see.
The terrorists then kidnapped living people. They pulled them into their cars and on motorcycles, and took those people with them. They abducted a total of 240 men, women and children, who have been held hostage for a month now, with very little signs of life.
I am of course talking about the massacre by Hamas in the south of Israel. Since that horrible day, we have all been living in hell. Our every waking and sleeping thought is of pain, fear and death. Time stood still for us on that day.
I am not asking you to take sides in the terrible war that followed this mass murder. The only thing I want from the true crime community is to acknowledge that what Hamas did to us was a crime. It was not an act of war. There was no war at that time. What they did was a deliberate and premeditated crime, with the goal of murdering and kidnapping as many Israelis as they could, while maximizing our suffering as much as possible. That was their only goal.
There is plenty of evidence for this. The terrorists wore cameras on their heads and recorded every horrific act they committed that day. They uploaded it on social media, proud of what they did. Much of the footage is freely accessible, although not all of it. Some of it is too gruesome to be shown to the general public. It has been compiled into a movie, that has been shown to journalists and news outlets around the world. Half of them were unable to stay in the room and finish watching. All of them came out shaking and feeling sick.
The people held hostage range in age from nine months to 86 years old. They are from a wide range of nationalities. They are Israeli, American, Thai, Filipino, Tanzanian, Argentinian, German, British… The list goes on. Their families do not sleep and cannot breathe. Their lives are hell.
What I want is for the international community to acknowledge that this was a terrible crime against the people of Israel, whether they were Jews, Muslims, Christians or otherwise. Hamas murdered without distinction. A lot of Israeli Arabs, Thai foreign workers and visitors were killed and captured as well as Jews.
The MeToo movement turns a blind eye to the violent rape of hundreds of Israeli women. The Red Cross and Unicef do nothing to secure the release of 30 children being held hostage, or to verify that severely wounded hostages receive medical care. Antisemitism has sprung up over the entire world. Jews feel threatened and unsafe everywhere. Jewish children are being kept home from school in Europe. Jewish college students in the USA are not going to class, for fear of being harassed.
I am powerless to stop any of this. But I have a voice. So I post, and I write. I want everyone to know what is happening. It feels to me as if history is coming full circle and repeating itself.
That is my story. I am fortunate to not have been affected personally and my family is safe. But friends and family of my friends have been murdered, abducted or killed in battle. We are traumatized, shocked, angry and afraid. And so very, very sad. I live for the day that the hostages will come back home. I pray that they are still alive.
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