Shani Louk

In memory of Shani Louk and Orion Hernandez Radoux

A lot has happened in the last few months. Rabid rioting students taking over campuses around the world. Israel being brought to the international court of justice on unfounded genocide charges fueled by hate. Arrest warrants being put out for Netanyahu, while none have been put out for Hamas. We see the left bowing down to Islamic antisemitism, afraid of being called bigots, racists and Islamophobes. And at the same time, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and even Iran keep firing insane numbers of missiles towards Israel. No news channel shows it, but this is our reality.

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Leftwing politicians, media, college professors and Islamists are united in their hatred for Israel. Being European, university-educated and a translator, I see more of this than many of my fellow Israelis do. I feel like I am drowning in a tidal wave of vicious international fury. Do we even have the right to exist anymore? Not according to many protesters. We should “go back to where we came from”.

They have no idea that for the majority of Israelis, this is an unhinged and impossible demand. Ethiopian Jews should go back to Africa, where they faced starvation and persecution? Mizrachi Jews should go back to Iraq, Iran and Yemen? The idea of millions of Jews marching back into the very states they had to flee from is absurd. None of them would be left alive. And even Ashkenazi Jews like my in-laws, who have lived here for four generations now after fleeing Nazi Germany. Do people really think my 79 year old father in law, who was born in Israel, has a Polish passport somewhere? It is all so ridiculous that it makes my blood boil.

And still, to many people around the world, this is a totally reasonable ask. We are evil colonizers genociding the indigenous population, and we should be wiped out. And these are the same people whining about the “trans genocide” and about being misgendered every second day. The absurdity of it all would be laughable, if it wasn’t so very bleak and worrying.

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“Keffiyeh Keren” Johanna King-Slutzky, with her Queers for Palestine sidekicks.

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All of this is fuelling my anxiety and my fury. How dare they. How DARE they. But the worst, the most evil stab in our collective heart, the lowest of low blows, was this:

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The “photojournalist” who took this sickening picture of Shani Louk’s body being abused and dragged to Gaza, was lauded and praised as a prizewinner. Oh yes, the very same Gazan journalists who rode along with Hamas and documented the massacre, probably enjoying the sight, are hailed as artists and professionals by the international community. Such professionalism! Such noble dedication! We must award these courageous freedom fighters with press prizes! Just to make it absolutely clear that we don’t care in the slightest about the violated, lifeless young woman in the back of that truck. We don’t give a damn about the agony of her family, about the pain of an entire nation. We don’t care about exposing her, exploiting her cruel death, and tainting her memory forever. All we care about is bowing down to the altar of the noble freedom fighting terrorists, I mean journalists.

Please excuse me for going slightly off the rails here. But you can see how strongly I feel about this disgrace, this injustice. So imagine how Shani’s family feels. I will show you what they said:

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Shani’s grandmother asks us to remember her granddaughter this way:

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And we will. We will forever remember Shani the way she was: vibrant, full of life, loving, dancing, happy and quirky. This beautiful, unique girl who we all got to know only after her death. She touches something deeply inside our hearts.

Shani was a tattoo artist. I decided to get this tattoo to honour her. And to remember not only Shani, but all the others we lost, who are all equally precious. I imagine them all rising up to heaven as butterflies, dancing free, all different and unique.

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You can find Shani Louk’s tattoo website here:

https://shaniloukink.com/

Her family memorialized the site and invite people to get one of Shani’s designs tattoed. They are beautiful and intricate and I intend to get one of them, too.

After many weeks of being held back by the international community who seems hell-bent on protecting Hamas, the IDF finally had enough. After many stalled and drawn-out agreement negotiations, it became clear once more that you cannot negatiate with terrorists. The IDF attacked and forced their way into Rafah. And what did they find? The dead bodies of hostages.

It seems that every few days, more hostages are found dead. Most of them seem to have been killed on October 7 and their bodies abducted to Gaza. They are found left behind in hospitals, buried beneath the floors of civilian houses and thrown in underground tunnels.

And so, at last, Shani Louk’s body has been found and returned to her family.

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She has now been laid to rest. I hope her soul is now finally free and at peace. 🦋

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Shani is not the only one whose body was found. They all deserve their stories to be told, so I will do that in later posts. Until now, the people who were found are:

Amit Buskila, 28.

Itzik Gelernter, 58.

Ron Benjamin, 53.

Sonthaya Oakkharasri.

Sudthisak Rinthalak.

Hanan Yablonka, 42.

Michel Nisenbaum, 59.

And Orion Hernandez Radoux, 30.

Yes, that’s right. The body of Shani’s Mexican boyfriend Orion was found. He was thought to stil be alive. Apparently, he was killed on October 7 along with Shani and so many others. What a terrible blow for his family. And what a cruel, cruel thing to do by Hamas, to have kept them in the dark for seven months, not knowing wether he was alive or dead.

Orion leaves behind a three year old daughter. We will keep his memory alive, just like Shani’s. We will remember them the way they were: full of life and energy. 🦋🦋

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Shani Louk – forever young

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This is my YouTube video about Shani Louk. It’s the best performing video on my channel, with 42K views. I can only guess why that is. Is it because of the horrific footage and the famous, prize-winning (yes!) photo of the abuse and abduction of her lifeless body? Is it because of her arresting looks? Is it because of the universally terrifying idea of going to a hippy music festival and being brutally murdered by rabid terrorists? It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t monetize my content. All I want is for people to watch, or read, and know what we went through.

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This beautiful, free spirit is Shani Louk. She is 22 years old and will stay 22 years old forever. She will not grow up, have children and experience everything life has to offer. Shani Louk was murdered on October 7, 2023, at the hands of crazed, bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists.

Shani was born on February 7, 2001, to an Israeli father and a German mother. The family lived in Israel, but often visited Shani’s grandparents in Germany. They lived for several years in Portland, Oregon, but eventually moved back to Israel.

Shani was artistic and loved travelling. She became a tattoo artist and travelled the world with her Mexican boyfriend, Orión Hernández Radoux. She was a convinced pacifist and refused to serve in the Israeli army. She was also very active on social media and had a lot of followers. Her instagram, which was full of ethereal photos of her, had more than 13,000 followers.

Shani lived in Tel Aviv and often went to raves and dance parties. On October 7, she and her boyfriend Orión were at the Supernova festival. There are several photos and videos of them dancing, laughing and having a great time.

Until all hell broke loose and many hundreds of Hamas terrorists flooded the party in a frenzied killing spree, hunting people down, bullets flying everywhere. Shani called friends on her phone, telling them to flee. She also called her mother, saying that she was trying to get to her car, to hide from the terrorists. After that, her phone went silent.

Hours later, the livestream of the terrorists’ video cameras showed a naked, seemingly unconscious woman in the bed of a pick-up truck, being paraded through the streets of Gaza City. Shani’s friends and family recognized the distinct tattoos and the long dreadlocks, and realized with horror that this was Shani Louk. They had to watch helplessly as terrorists spat on her, pulled her hair and screamed “Allahu akhbar!!”. There are stills from this footage, but I am not going to show them, as they are too shocking. The footage and the stills are easy to find on the internet, for whoever wants to see the full horror of what Hamas did to Shani Louk.

Initially, it was thought that Shani was still alive, that she had been taken hostage. But on October 30, almost a month after the attack, part of Shani’s skull was found at the site of the festival. A vital part, without which she could not possibly live. All hope was gone for Shani’s family. Although they did not have her body, they had to accept that she was dead. “It was like being kicked in the head,” Shani’s brother said.

Because part of her skull was found, rumours circulated on the internet that Shani had been beheaded. But it is more likely that she was shot in the head and died instantly. Fortunately, she escaped the fate of other women, who were gangraped, tortured and beheaded. Her family takes some comfort in the idea that she did not suffer.

And what about Shani’s boyfriend, Orión Hernández Radoux? Orión holds both Mexican and French nationality. He is not an Israeli, he came to Israel as a tourist, to be with Shani. He is 31 years old and has a little daughter. According to his friends, he is a man of music and festivals, of love and family, adventure and peace. Orión has been missing since the attack. There has been no news of him whatsoever. His body was not found, so he is presumed to be a hostage. But there is no evidence that he is alive.

However, after the 7th of October, a series of chilling messages were sent from his phone. It seems that Hamas terrorists got hold of his phone and used it to send messages in Arabic to his contacts. “I spit on you,” they read, “God damn you.” And “Liberate Palestine”, “kill the Zionists”. That is Hamas’ message to the world. Very sophisticated.

As I am writing this, the IDF is pushing into Gaza, searching for the hostages. I hope and pray that Orión will be found, alive, with the others. And that he is ok. But even if he is, he will be traumatized forever. I’m so sorry, Orión, that this had to happen to you.

#bringthemhome