“It was terrifying. It comes very close when fellow villagers lose their lives. Two brothers, in their late forties, dared to confront the Hamas terrorists in an attempt to defend our village. They are both dead.”
These are the words of Roni Keidar, a 79-year-old Israeli who lives with her husband in Netiv HaAsara, the last Israeli village near the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, barely 500 meters away. At least fifteen people were killed in the village this weekend. The Keidars have a horticultural business in Netiv HaAsara, a farming community of about 900 residents.
The village is located within the internationally recognized borders of Israel, and therefore not in a settlement illegal under international law. In any case, the Keidars there have also been living with the threat of Palestinian rocket and mortar hits for years. During our conversation on Saturday evening, there is shouting in Hebrew. Roni tells her to hang up because everyone needs to take cover from new missiles.
Saferoom
Every house has an air raid shelter or a ‘safe room’. Roni also went there early on Saturday morning, when the alarm went off. “It was twenty past six, and I panicked when my husband wasn’t next to me in bed. He loves walking to the fields before dawn. I tried to call him, but it didn’t work. My breath caught, and my heart skipped a beat. Then he suddenly stepped out of the bathroom. He had already been in the field, but then he had to go to the toilet. Who knows, that may have saved his life.”
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Roni Keidar’s entire family is unharmed so far. “But my daughter was terrified because Hamas entered her house. She panicked because the door to her safe room could no longer be locked. She then hid in the closet with her 24-year-old daughter and her 15-year-old son. For three and a half hours. Even the dog didn’t make a sound. They heard men walking around the house and shooting, and then the men left. Hours later, the army rescued them.”
With each new escalation in recent years, Roni has reflected on the suffering of civilians on the other side. “But now I feel very confused about my peace activism”
On Sunday morning, Roni Keidar fled Netiv HaAsara with her family and other villagers to the area around Tel Aviv. Her voice sounds calmer than the day before. “We feel safer here, and even got free rooms in a hotel. But the parents of those two murdered brothers are with us, and the atmosphere is extremely depressed.”
Fourth war
A few miles from Netiv HaAsara, in Gaza City, lives Fadi Ali Abu Shammala, a 39-year-old father of three sons, and director of a Palestinian network of cultural NGOs. “We have already been through hundreds of Israeli air strikes, but we have already survived the first night.” Ali, his eldest son, is almost thirteen, and this is already his fourth war. Karam is ten and Adam is five. “My wife and I take shelter with our three sons in our apartment, near the door, because that is where we are furthest away from windows and open spaces.”
“By entering Israel so unexpectedly, Hamas has humiliated the Israelis, and Netanyahu will want to restore that image. The Israeli response will be worse than anything we have ever seen before,” Fadi fears. In the background of the conversation comes the dull sound of bombs hitting. One of the sons starts to cry loudly.
“We keep the children busy all the time so that they are not alone with their thoughts,” says Fadi. “When the bombs fall, we ask them to scream, curse or cry. Keeping your mouth shut is dangerous. Literal. If a bomb hits nearby, a child with a closed mouth may be injured internally and may bleed.”
Netanyahu says Gaza citizens must leave their homes. Can the Israeli Prime Minister also advise where we, citizens, can go?
Fadi Abu Shammala lives with his family in a neighborhood with many international organizations. The German cultural Goethe Institut is located in the same apartment building. “Every Palestinian who lives here has been thoroughly vetted by Israel in advance,” says Fadi. It gives him the feeling that Israel is more likely to spare his building, but anyway the rain of bombs over the city is constant. “Netanyahu says Gaza citizens must leave their homes. Can the Israeli Prime Minister also advise where we, citizens, can go? Should I swim to Spain with my family?” There has been a strong blockade around the narrow Gaza Strip for years.
Divorce politics
Roni and Fadi are two moderate voices. Fadi has many international contacts, Roni is a peace activist with contacts in the Gaza Strip. Unlike the younger generation in Israel, Roni remembers clearly that Gaza was not yet hermetically sealed. Cross-border workers from Gaza went to work in Israel, and Israelis went to buy fruit in Gaza or had their cars repaired there. As a result of the separation policy, Israelis and Palestinians no longer know each other, and that has largely dehumanized this conflict.
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With each new escalation in recent years, Roni has reflected on the suffering of civilians on the other side. “But now I feel very confused about my peace activism,” she confesses. “There is a place and space for everything, and now I feel there is no room for the smallest word of empathy. My grandchildren would ask me, “Grandmother, how can you?!” I just need one low profile because in my environment there is now zero understanding for the Palestinians.”
“The images from Israel are chilling,” Fadi responds. “There are no words for the fact that this also affects older people, women and young children. But that also applies to us here in Gaza. We are an occupied people. We suffer from the terror of settlers. And we have the right to defend ourselves. You can’t fight fire with fire, and yet Bibi tries to do just that. But not all people in Israel and Palestine cry for blood – at least not me. That is why we must make our voices heard, even now that the bombs are sounding so loudly. Someday this will end. I hope for one state for two peoples, no matter how far away that outcome now seems.”