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Tel Aviv - There Are No Words That Can Be Spoken



There are no words that can be spoken
There are no truths that we can tell
As eloquently as the bodies of the broken
That wake us from our apathetic spell

Go silently among the flesh and rubble
Walk softly and do not raise your voice
Pass by here in these times of trouble
As you did when celebrating bygone joys

Look and see all though it pains you
Witness well and be sure never to forget




"Philip Balhasan's relatives said he traveled to Tel Aviv with his two children, Linor and Uri, after promising to buy them CDs and computer games for Passover. The son, Uri, recounted the moment of horror: "When we heard the blast, dad wrapped his arms around me and Linor and hugged us tightly. Then he said 'grab the phone, call mom and tell her about the attack.'" Shortly thereafter, Balhasan collapsed, but police officers who led him to an ambulance were able to talk to him and heard him say he was hurt by shrapnel and by the force of the blast. It appears some of the shrapnel hit Balhasan's heart and he died on the way to the hospital."




"David Shaulov was killed while on his lunch break. His wife, Ludmila, 27, is in her ninth month of pregnancy and received the terrible news at hospital, after heading there earlier in the morning because she felt she was about to give birth.

Ludmila attempted to call her husband after hearing about the attack, but received no answer. She later insisted on heading to the forensics institute against the advice of doctors in order to be with the family at the time the body was identified. The couple moved to Israel in 1990, and David's brother, Yossi, said: "David was keeping the entire family afloat. He always helped and supported everyone. I don't know what we'll be doing without him now." Shaulov is survived by his wife, who is about to give birth to a girl, and by two children, Idan, 6, and Karin, 4."




"Binyamin Chafuta, 47, was the security guard positioned at the entrance to the fast food stand at the time of the bombing. Chafuta worked as a guard for many years, and started working at the shawarma stand following the previous attack at the site earlier this year.

Chafuta's relatives said they felt as if he bid them farewell during the Passover holiday. "He loved to laugh, to eat and to drink, and we never saw him as happy as he was during those two holiday days," his wife Miriam said"




"Taxi driver Victor Erez, 60, lost a leg several weeks before the Six Days Wars after sustaining wounds at the Erez crossing, after a vehicle he was traveling in went over a landmine. His young sister, 51-year-old Yafit Hajaj, lives in London and arrived in Israel for the holiday. She never imagined the trip would end so tragically. Hajaj said she came to celebrate the brit (circumcision) of Erez's first grandson. "Exactly a week and a half ago he served as his godfather, and it was great joy," she said."




Walk softly among the debris and rubble
Walk quietly and do not wake the dead


Comments

  1. Hashem, please comfort those who are grieving, heal those who are injured, and see that there is justice for these innocent souls.

    SK, the last photo of the rescue worker, clearly a religious man cleaning up blood is something I won't forget.

    This is all I can think of to say. Your words were eloquent. Thank you for posting these pictures and words.

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  3. LLM, my sympathy will always be with the innocent victims of terrorism, and other violent crimes. I care when many claim it is no longer "newsworthy" and when people tell me to let it go.

    I know the families of murder victims in my community personally, not victims of terrorism per se because that's not what I cover in my small community, but I know the pain they go through once the news crews pack up and leave. I've seen the families of the victims crying out in the wilderness for someone to listen 1, 5, 13 years after the murders. Crying for someone to remember.

    People can question my sincerity. Let them. Hashem knows I care.

    When I write that the photo of the religious man in Sultan's post is something I will not forget I mean it.

    Could I lie and say every photo will be burned into my memory? Sure. But I don't want to lie. I don't lie and certainly not about something like this.

    All of the photos sicken me. But that last one impacted me more than the others.

    I will remember that the man is soaking up an innocent Jew's blood. Someone who only went to a falafel stand.

    And LLM's last remark..yes, I to know that those who do not bless Israel will be cursed--no doubt beyond anything we can possibly imagine.

    I am struggling to write this--physically and otherwise. I'm stammering. It's part of why a rabbi suggested I start a blog. Because I am not able to express my own thoughts very well anymore. It's not like reporting. And expressing my thoughts about a matter I know little about--Israel--isn't easy.

    But I try. Sultan tries. You try. The others? I don't know where they are, or what they are thinking. I don't know if this act of terrorism is already yesterday's news to them. Click. Turn the channel.


    And as I write this, hours and hours after sultan posted it, there are still only two responses.

    Sultan, thank you for posting this.

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