2023-11-16 19:33:00
The council of the kibbutz movement met today (Thursday) in Tel Aviv together with the council of the religious kibbutz movement for a special mourning session, the first since the October 7 massacre. Under the title “Remembering everyone, waiting for their return”, the kibbutz movements held a ceremony of remembrance and communion with the victims of the massacre and those who fell in the war, and called for the release of the abductees held in Gaza.
The kibbutzim paid an unprecedented price: 296 members and children were murdered, including dozens of members of standby classes. 145 were kidnapped, the youngest is 10 months old, and the oldest is 85. About 30 of the kidnapped are foreign workers. In addition to these, many dozens were injured physically and mentally, communities suffered an unbearable blow and farms were destroyed and burned.
Nir Meir, secretary general of the kibbutz movement. “The State of Israel is doing its duty to protect the settlements of the south” (photo: Dodo Garnot)
The meeting was attended by representatives of kibbutzim from around the country, members of bereaved families and members of kidnapped and missing families. Hami Rodner, Shlomit Aharon, Miki Kam and Yehuda Ader also performed at the Gevatron ceremony.
“We have already had 41 long days and dark nights since that terrible morning when the sky fell, and our lives, as we knew them, changed forever,” said Nir Meir, secretary general of the kibbutz movement. “The house is not the same house. One day is too long to end. Funeral haunts funeral, seven after seven, pain that has no end. Unfathomable numbers of unbearable blood price.
“The bloodthirsty Hamas-Daesh murderers slaughtered our brothers and sisters with morbid pleasure: babies in their cradles, girls and children in their parents’ laps, innocent girls, young men and the elderly. Whole families. Peace-loving citizens, lovers of the land, workers of its land. When the killing spree ended, the looting began. Kibbutzim were burned Those who survived the inferno were abducted to Gaza: women, men and children.”
Hami Rodner (photo: Maya Ronen)
In his words, Meir mentioned the workers from the other states and nationalities who were among the victims: “Our friends whose kibbutz was their home, Thai, Sri Lankan, and Nepalese, were also slaughtered by the murderers. They worked in our fields, studied and acquired knowledge, took care of our elderly parents and were an integral part of Manof The kibbutzim and the communities. They loved the kibbutzim they lived in, and the kibbutzim loved them. I am sending a map on behalf of the entire kibbutz movement, offering condolences to their grieving families.”
In his words, Meir expressed the anger and frustration burning in the members of the kibbutzim, even more so since that Sabbath: “The State of Israel fulfills its duty – to protect the settlements in the south. There has never been such a security failure in the history of the State of Israel. There has never been such a brutal massacre in the history of the State of Israel. There has never been in the history of the kibbutz movement A campaign in which we paid such a heavy and painful price, and the loss is great and heavy to bear.”
“There won’t be a picture of victory, and there won’t be a return to routine, and the country won’t be quiet, until all the abducted: babies, girls and boys, girls and boys, mothers and fathers, veterans and veterans, including the workers and workers with foreign citizenship – 239 abductees in number – down to the last of them, return to us home”
Along with the prayer for the peace of the abductees and all the abductees, Meir asked to convey a clear message to the Israeli government: “There will be no image of victory, and there will be no return to routine, and the land will not be quiet, until all the abductees: baby, girl and boy, girl and boy, mothers and fathers, veterans and veterans, including the workers And the female workers with foreign citizenship – 239 kidnapped in number – until the last one of them, will return home to us.”
Meir called on the members of the kibbutzim all over the country, and especially the central kibbutzim that were not evacuated and were not harmed, to join the march of the families of the abductees to Jerusalem. Meir also assured the families of the abducted and missing, on behalf of the entire kibbutz movement: “We will not let up and we will not let the heads of state until they fulfill their mission of returning our loved ones home. The responsibility for their return lies in your hands, Mr. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. You are the one responsible for returning them home, on your watch they were kidnapped from their homes , crying children, barefoot, bruised friends, and shocked and frightened elderly people. We have one expectation from you – to return home the abducted. This must be your only and last task as prime minister.”
According to him, despite the kibbutz movement being at the forefront of the Western Negev region, the Israeli government did not see fit to include even one kibbutz member in the Takuma administration. “I tell you from here – don’t try us and don’t confront us. The kibbutzim will maintain their special character and character as their members choose, and only as they choose. We will do everything, but everything, to support our communities, to help them recover, mentally and physically, and return to their homes, their communities and kibbutzim, and to bring their loved ones to the grave in the land of their kibbutzim.
“We did our part in guarding the borders of the State of Israel at a terrible price in blood. Now the state must fulfill its role, accept responsibility, and restore security to the settlements of the Western Negev and the settlements of the north. Those who refuse to accept responsibility for the failure, cannot be responsible for the rehabilitation. Without responsibility there is no authority , without responsibility, there is no trust. And without trust, there will be no settlement on the border. The saying, “Laura Ha’iv the settlements of the Western Negev,’ ‘until the last furrow’, took effect again on October 7, as it did 100 years ago. Today we make it clear: there is no security without agriculture, There is no agriculture without communities, and there are no communities without security.”
David Grossman: “Men and women risked their lives with indescribable courage”
Sara Evron, secretary general of the religious kibbutz, a member of the religious kibbutz Saad, evacuated to the Nevo Hotel in the Dead Sea with the other members of the kibbutz. “Our world has been shaken and changed,” she said. We are here to shout together a great cry. We are all together shouting together in a loud voice that will be heard from the end of the world to the end: return the abducted.”
Sara Evron, secretary of the religious kibbutz. “Just like our ancestors and our ancestors who fought for their homes in Kfar Etzion, in Barot Yitzchak, who said as one man – נק֣ום ובני֔ינו” (Photo: Dodo Garnot)
Evron called on the representatives of the kibbutzim and the communities that these days are collecting the fragments: “Continue to hold ceremonies as only you know how. Bring the communities together. On holidays, on holidays. Especially in these difficult days. Because this is our way to protect ourselves. This is the way that Jewish tradition outlines for us. There is We have a responsibility to rehabilitate our diaspora communities, to replant them in the land of the Western Negev, a diverse and vibrant fabric of life, of an agricultural, Zionist, creative and constructive settlement.
“I am with you as a believing woman, who in these difficult days reminds myself that I – we are all, a link in the chain of generations. We came here to fix the world. We have a role. It is difficult. These days it is even unbearable. But we have no choice. Just like our ancestors and our ancestors who fought for Their homes in Kfar Etzion, in Barot Yitzchak, who lost a very large percentage of their friends, who remained after a terrible massacre on their land, but did not give up, and said as one man – נק֣ום ובני֔ינו. So are we. We will arise and build.”
Author David Grossman spoke: “Hamas terrorists, drunk with hatred and evil, slaughtered families in their homes, parents in front of children, children in front of parents. They raped and murdered innocent people dancing at a Nova party. They chased them and shot them like a group of hunters, or as if they were characters in a computer game . ‘Here are our bodies lying, a long long line,’ wrote Haim Guri, in another war, perhaps actually this is the same war that seems to go on endlessly. , the horrors we were exposed to, the face of hatred, man and beast will not see them. It’s as if a sinkhole had opened in the heart of reality and it was drawing and drawing us into it.
“And in contrast, the stories of heroism and sacrifice that we heard these days. The story of the deeds that people did for other people. The unimaginable courage of those who threw their lives on the other side, literally, literally threw their lives on the other side, to save other people. To protect the family, to protect The house and the kibbutz, and more than once on people they didn’t know. Again and again men and women risked their lives with indescribable courage.
“In one moment, in one act, like jumping on a live grenade that was thrown into a migunit or MMD to save the other family members who were there. And when they did this, when they threw their souls aside, they actually shook to the core the conventions of the world we know. A cynical, selfish, utilitarian, egocentric world. Since October 7th, I have been thinking a lot about these people. We passed them every day as a routine, in the small moments of the street. Then suddenly, in one moment, they were launched from the familiar, the banal, to one of the most difficult tests that a person has faced. A test of life and death.”
Yisrael Hluti, whose late wife Recham was assassinated on October 7th: “The members of the kibbutz movement in the Gaza Strip, along with the nearby villages and towns in the Western Negev, found themselves standing exposed in the tower, in front of Kalgassi and the killers of Hamas. Promiscuous in front of those whose fundamental goal was to slaughter, murder, burn and destroy with cruelty that cannot be expressed in simple words in the Hebrew language.
Israel is sick. “40 days after the murder of my wife Rekha, I returned to the house in a spell. Everything was destroyed, the walls were burned, the ceiling fell” (Photo: Dodo Granot)
“The loss of a family member, heaven forbid, in my case, the loss of a wife, and along with it displacement from many communities where their homes were destroyed and completely destroyed. Whole communities that lived a happy community life, happy under their vines and fig trees, found themselves housed in hotels as guests tending to spend the night, not knowing how long and where From here on in. The stone placed on the soul is even heavier.
“40 days after Reka’s murder, I returned to the house in Kisufim. Everything was destroyed, the walls were burned, the ceiling fell in. They ask me if I will return to Kisufim. Where will I return and why? Rekah was murdered by despicable terrorists who only wanted to destroy, hurt, burn and murder. There was no chance against them “.
“God is full of mercy, and there is no mercy”
Verda Goldstein, a member of Kibbutz Kfar Gaza, on October 7th received her son Nadav and her granddaughter Yam Zal. Nadav’s wife, Chen, and three of their children were kidnapped by Hamas. in the routine’. Community resilience has become a slogan for the residents of the surrounding area. ‘Drips’, ’rounds’ and endless ‘deals’ are part of the local lexicon. A stranger will not understand this. My grandchildren were born into a reality of red color and meters, and learned firsthand that 15 seconds is life-saving time.
“‘A house we don’t leave,’ said Nadav in every round in which there was an evacuation. On the Black Sabbath of October 7, life turned upside down on us, chaos and darkness on the face of an abyss. Hundreds of terrorists crossed the fence, raided the kibbutz, and for 3 days waged bloody battles, killing , looted and destroyed every good piece of land. The metros were no longer a safe place. 15 seconds no longer saved lives.
“On the black Shabbat, God rested from all his work that he had done. A deep hole was opened in the ground, and the Sabbath became black, because God rested, and no one came. The cry was strong, and the members of the kibbutz fought with their bodies to save their family members. The citizens protected the army instead of the army protecting its citizens. The battles were difficult. The stories of supreme heroism revealed by those imprisoned in the MMDs are beyond imagination. More than 200 terrorists were killed. We paid a heavy price. Dozens of soldiers and officers were killed in the battle for Gaza village. 61 murdered and 18 kidnapped. Second Holocaust.
“God is full of mercy, and there is no mercy, who dwells on high, and there is no one who is deceived, from whom shall we ask forgiveness and forgiveness? We have not transgressed, we have not transgressed, we have not sinned. Those dearest to us have been murdered, plundered, taken captive. I will lift my eyes to the mountains. Where will my help come from?
“You are the people of evil who sit on the thrones of this damned government, who have poured out hatred and destruction, who have divided the people and defiled the Hebrew language, who the government has stained your eyes and corrupted you. We will have another reckoning when the time comes and when the day comes. Look me in the eyes, those who sit there in Jerusalem. My private home is burning. No At least one photo album remains in it. My kibbutz home is destroyed.
“We paid a heavy price for such a magnificent community. We will rebuild our destroyed home. The surrounding settlements will be restored, I’m sure. We will fill our hearts again with optimism. We will return to the restored home only on the condition that we are sure that Hamas is displaced and wiped off the face of the earth.”
“We paid a heavy price for such a magnificent community. We will rebuild our destroyed home. The surrounding settlements will be restored, I am sure. We will fill our hearts again with optimism. We will return to the restored home only on the condition that we are sure that Hamas is displaced and wiped off the face of the earth. We will never forget those who paid for This is the way in their lives because of arrogance, stupidity, evil and hatred. As Nadav our son said: ‘Hope dies last.'”
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