What will you say to her when she comes home? Yoni Levy, father of captured soldier Naama Levy, replied, “I will ask her forgiveness,” or “אני אבקש את סליחתה.”
Naama’s smiling pre-October 7th face, her shiny dark hair waving in the wind, has been shared endlessly on social media, alongside the horrible video of her from that day, bloodied sweatpants, her hands zip-tied behind her back, the look on her face a mixture of fear, of pain, of what-is-happening-to-me, and more than I can even imagine, as she’s led from a pickup truck by a Hamas terrorist in full soldier regalia.
Her family? Where can they be, some 180 days later. Not anywhere really. Another parent of a young adult captive shared that it’s hard to get out of bed some days - she’s just too down, too depressed, too sad. Naama’s father said that he will tell her that we didn’t give up but it took so much longer than he ever imagined - than all of us ever imagined.
Then, we have Shani Louk and that horrible photo of her, which I won’t share here, now declared a Picture of the Year International by the The Associated Press. She’s seen lying face down, unconscious or dead, in the back of one of those white pickup trucks, filled with armed Hamas soldiers. Shani, whose body is in Gaza, was declared dead after October 7th, based on forensic evidence from a bone found from her skull.
A BONE FOUND FROM HER SKULL. Where was that found between the Nova festival site and Gaza? I guess any other forensic evidence of violence will be null, if and when her body is returned.
Freelance photographer Ali Mahmud, who took the picture of Shani’s body, worked for AP and accompanied Hamas terrorists on October 7. While AP denies that the Mahmud may have known in advance of the plans for October 7th, it’s hard to imagine that he wasn’t told “big stuff is about to happen, come along and take some photos.” Think about it, he just photographed the atrocities and watched? If that’s photojournalism we need to reevaluate how we choose and award those “best pictures.”
Her father, Nissim, tried to put a positive spin on the photo, calling it a moment in history. But then I think about her pretty face, let alone her whole Nova festival look, from her tattoos to her braids and jewelry, and how she must have suffered before she finally died, her body dumped like garbage on the back of a pickup truck. “It’s good that the photo won the prize,” Nissim said, adding, “These are some of the photos that shape human memory — the Jew raising his hands [he’s referring to the famed picture of the child during the Holocaust], the paratroopers at the Western Wall — photos that symbolize an era.”
I think about the famed picture of the Vietnam war, of civilians running from an accidental Napalm bombing of a village. The photographer, Nick Ut, tells of shooting the photos of people running down the road - he thought the villagers had all left - and then seeing a girl running naked, badly burned.
What did he ultimately do? He drove her, Kim Phuc, and a few other injured children to the hospital, and against all odds, she survived. Nick said, “Kim kept screaming, “I’m dying! I’m dying!” Her body was burned so badly. All her tears were coming out. I was sure she was going to die any minute in my car.” (Read the story here)
That’s a little different than Ali Mahmud’s actions on October 7th, along with Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, and Hatem Ali, who all photographed the atrocities of that day.
Honest Reporting wrote about this in November 2023, sharing “On October 7, Hamas terrorists were not the only ones who documented the war crimes they had committed during their deadly rampage across southern Israel. Some of their atrocities were captured by Gaza-based photojournalists working for the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies whose early morning presence at the breached border area raises serious ethical questions.”
“What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.” (Read the full article here)
Some of the families of those captive and missing joined the larger government protests this past week, deciding to “turn the lights off at Hostages Square,” they said, declaring it was time to oust Netanyahu and his government. They feel, like so many of the thousands of people who’ve shown up at the recent days of protests in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem that only new leadership will find a new way to deal with the challenges at hand - first and foremost, getting the hostages home, and second, making a plan for the future with Gaza which includes security for Israelis living in the South near Hamas-held Gaza and in the North near Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. (And let’s not forget we need a government and leadership who are willing to acknowledge all the terrible mistakes which led us down the path to October 7th.)
Just to type those words gives me the chills - Hamas-held Gaza in the South and Hezbollah strongholds in the North right over the border in Lebanon. Whenever I consider the threat posed by Hezbollah, let alone their armory of missiles and more, I think of the supplies that I packed up like such a good girl in October that have been pilfered over the year. “Where’s the peanut butter?” someone asked the other day. “Oh, take that unopened bottle we put in the safe room,” I said. It’s hard to live your life as if Armageddon is always coming.
Can new leadership react more smartly, safeguarding those who are still displaced from their homes in the North, and what about those afraid to go back home down South - those who have homes to return to but are fearful that Hamas is set on getting back to the business of planning more missiles once they’ve cut a deal, sent the hostages home (please g-d soon), and effected a real cease fire.
It’s a mess. I know.
We decided to deliver the traditional Purim gifts this year to local friends and family. A simple offering of homemade pickled lemons and sourdough crackers. A little מר ולא מתוק, a “bit of bitter and not sweet,” a sort of Israeli wordplay on the song, Al Kol Eileh, אל כל אילה - Naomi Shemer’s song, “For All These Things.” So many of our friends and families chose not to give, or to give simple gifts in return which felt right. How could you drink to oblivion, pretending to not know the difference between the heroine of the story, Esther, and her Uncle Mordechai, and the villain, Haman?
Just bring them home already.