In Be'eri, Death at a Quarter to Seven
It's the everyday objects of life --toothbrushes and washing machines--that point to a life suddenly interrupted.
KIBBUTZ BE’ERI, SOUTHERN ISRAEL, (108 days after Oct 7) —Death came somewhere between six-thirty and a quarter to seven.
They didn’t even get a chance to brush their teeth.
Kibbutz Be’eri, a mortar’s-throw from the Gaza Strip, is/was and old-school, collectivist community. Kibbutzniks include/d Octogenarian Peace Activists and thirty-somethings Air Force Technology Division AI Researchers.
At a quarter to seven on October 7, the shock troops of jihad arrived.
It was the end of history, and the beginning of the same old story.
More people were killed in Be’eri on Oct. 7 than in any other Israeli community, at least 97 civilians, almost one in every 10 people who lived in Be’eri. An old-school pogrom.
As I walked through the valley of the shadow of death in my Columbia urban hiking shoes, I felt like I was walking on skulls. It even sounded like it.
The war criminals came to the Peace Kibbutz armed with Rocket Propelled Grenades.
It wasn’t a fair fight.
The Kibbutz is home to one of the best single-track mountain bike trails in Israel. I’ve ridden there before with my son; it’s the closest thing we have to Alpine bike trails. Today it was closed, unclear if/when it will open again. It’s a pity, the weather is good.
The evening before must have seemed like just another evening. Dishes.
Laundry.
Cooking.
Reading.
Relaxing. Whose feet were in this?
And in these?
This Head tennis racket belongs to Carmel Gat. Carmel is a 39-year-old hostage still being held in Gaza. She’s an occupational therapist. Hostages who were released about 50 days ago reported she had been kept captive with some children and did yoga once a day with them.
Black Sabbath October 7, 2023, Be’eri was supposed to celebrate its 77th birthday.
Instead, families were burned…
…along with their biscuits.
On October 7, at a quarter to seven, on its 77th birthday, the sky fell on Be’eri.
On the way back home, I saw a yellow ribbon in the sky —freshly made by a friendly pilot.
And I thought of Carmel Gat’s Head tennis racket, and how she did yoga once a day with Israel’s captive children, deep in Gaza’s tunnel dungeons.
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