Three elderly hostages are dead. The first I heard of this sad news item cited the palestinian News Ministry. It flashed across my phone as I was talking to one of my kids.
Chaim Gershon Peri, 79, Yoram Itak Metzger, 80, and Amiram Israel Cooper, 85 are three of supposedly 7 hostages reported dead. I say “supposedly” because we don’t know anything at all about the way they died. Though they might have held on for a few months there’s no evidence that they hadn’t died long before this “news article”
My conclusion: The photo released is part of the terrorist strategy. If you chose to look at it beware. That’s why I put a big red X through it. For me it is another searing tattoo that burns through my mind and unfortunately my memory.
What am I to make of this news? What really happened?
I know these men were held hostage. I know they were forced by their Hamas captors in December to speak from a script and be recorded. Then Hamas released the video for their messaging but in the process showed the men with neatly groomed Arab style beards. So maybe they were still alive around that time.
After that moment when did they die and how ? Why should I believe it was during IDF operations? There is a rabbit hole of reasons I follow as I question anything Hamas says. The only thing I can trust is my need to question the news. Yes these men died, that is a fact.
When I first learned about the hostages i immediately thought many if not all will die slowly and that is torture. Slow motion agonizing torture. It turns out some hostages died swiftly but their bodies have remained valuable as Hamas equates living bodies and dead bodies to equal in value for “exchange” purposes.
I heard from an eyewitness from Kibbutz Be’eri: a group of elderly people(including his in-laws) were lined up to be taken to Gaza as human chattel when the truck didn’t arrive for them they were all shot. Um…that didn’t make the news did it?
The outcomes for each hostage and their families is beyond sad. It is an outrage, or as Sam not so nicely puts it, a shitstain on the human race. It makes me mad, burning mad. I am mad that these people were stolen from their homes on Nir-oz and were then subjected to months of captivity only to have died for no reason other than being in the right place at the wrong time.
Right place? Yes their homes on Kibbutz Nir-Oz is their rightful home within Israel’s borders. And it was a beautiful place. An edenic place, as so many places in israel are…go visit and see for yourself!
After visiting nearby Kibbutz Be’eri I can easily envision the beautiful early morning that was shattered when they were kidnapped. I can smell the fragrant air where they were surrounded by agricultural and natural beauty.
I stood right there in a Kibbutz on the edge of Gaza. I faced west into Gaza and wondered, why were tunnels built instead of orchards and fields?
Every day I force myself to learn more and to communicate. It is a very hard assignment that I have given myself. I want to communicate with all kinds of readers, not just people who feel the same as me. HOW CAN I ACCOMPLISH THIS?
Delving into how my life feels each day and exploring the different forces at work feels unsettling but necessary to share.
Frankly, sometimes it is very scary.
I can’t escape the news each day. I see an endless stream of “news” flashes from Reuters, the WSJ, Washington Post and my former beloved NYT. Each one sets off a flurry of fact checking. What was the source? What does the Jerusalem Post or Times of Israel report? Did Ha’Aretz really say that?
Was the only source Al-Jazeera or a palestinan ministry? I try to learn more about the people quoted in the articles only to be bombarded with targeted ads that provide images I don’t want to click on.
You may be doing the same thing every day.
It has been nearly 150 days of news induced whiplash. My writing helps my mind find a calmer space where I can find clarity.
How do you find yours?
Living in constant fright or flight conditions could be bad for my health or at least my well being. But not reacting to this horror? Worse still. I have no choice but I choose to write! And I choose to question.
0Comments
Add Comment