taking a break...

Azzam Azzam, Loyal Citizen

Adapted from "Jerusalem", May 18, 2007
Yaniv Alfia

Two and a half years ago, Azzam "lucky to have been born in Israel and proud of it" Azzam was released from Egyptian prison. (I remember the moment he crossed the border into Israel and someone handed him a cell phone to call his family. All he said - in Hebrew - was "I am in Israel" and his family at the other end of the line burst into hysterical shouts of joy).
He has become a celebrity: people stop to talk to him, ask for his signature. People love him, want to talk to him and shake his hand, and Azzam is all too eager to tell his story (I can vouch for that: I saw him one day at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and I smiled and nodded at him. He immediately stretched out his hand, and I asked him how he was, and told him how happy I was to see him out of prison. We made small talk for a couple of minutes and parted Israeli style - wishing each other all the best. He looks very fragile, but his huge smile and lively eyes exude warmth and confidence.)
Coming home was difficult and painful for Azzam: "I wasn't able to lie down in bed, literally, because it felt like floating in outer space. I told my wife that I had to sleep on the floor. So we placed mattresses on the floor and slept on them during the first night. The next night I slept alone on the floor. Eventually I got used to sleeping in bed once again."
When the media coverage died down, Azzam was left alone, confused, with nothing to do, a stranger to his own children – without a future. "My wife noticed there was something wrong with me, that I was different. I wasn't really there. I was afraid of crowds. Once I ran away from home to be alone in the woods. So I was taken to Jerusalem for psychiatric treatment. I talked to doctors and nurses several times a day. I read books and watched TV. I was given a room of my own. One day the doctors found me writing on a piece of paper the names of all the wardens and officers I had met in jail. They told me, Azzam, it's OK, writing is good. I felt better when I left hospital. The staff who treated me encouraged me keep telling my story because people will want listen to me: You have got to get it out of your system."
So Azzam is telling his story, mainly on weekends. He is a cherished guest in private homes. He is fully booked in advance. The story brings tears to the eyes of his listeners. People tell their friends about him. The establishment has also become interested: public institutions, the army, different organizations.
- What do you tell your audience?
- I am simply telling my story. I warn them that they will hurt and become emotional. I tell them to look at me and follow my example. If I can smile after all I have been through, they should also smile. Then I tell them – I am Azzam Azzam, Israeli Druze from Mrar (a village where people, including a relative of Azzam's were killed by Katyusha strikes during the second Lebanon war). I am married with four children. I have six brothers. My oldest brother died in the Yom Kippur war. I served in the IDF. I was a sewing machine technician who went to Egypt to train workers in the textile industry.
- Tears fill the eyes of the audience when I tell them about my family. I show them this 15 minutes DVD presentation, with news clips and all sorts of pictures. People see my children before my arrest, and also eight years later, when I was released.
After my release a lot of people contacted me and wanted to hear my story. The IDF and IAF wanted me to speak to soldiers. My friend Mofaz (Shaul) told me that I could motivate young people before they join the army. I tell them that one can deal with getting into trouble and that one need not collapse under pressure. I assure them that the State of Israel looks after its citizens, Jews or non-Jews. I tell them to value this country and refrain from being too judgmental. Nobody values what they have until it is taken away from them.
(The following is for all those who claim that Arab detainees, mostly terrorists, are being abused in Israeli jails. Four Jordanian murderers were released from Israeli prison this week at the request of King Abdullah. Once in Jordan they complained about the bad treatment they received at the hands of the Israilis, who do not value human life. Can they beat Azzam's story? And please remember that Azzam did in fact spare us the most gory details. The abuse is absolutely incomprehensible and unbearable). Azzam recalls what he went through, mainly while being held in the underground facilities of the Egyptian intelligence (intelligence, yeah, right, Egyptian intelligence is a good one). He was tied upside down above a tub of ice-cold water. His interrogators would lower him repeatedly into the tub until his head was completely submerged. They told him to confess unless he wanted to be cut up into pieces and fed to the crocodiles in the Nile. There is not one inch of his body that has not been subjected to electric shocks. How DID he survive for over eight years, or more precisely 2,950 days, in a windowless cell measuring 250x185 cm, with a threadbare mattress, three blankets, one pillow and two plastic buckets, one with water to wash his face, the other to be used as a toilet? How did he survive the fist four months without being allowed to shower? How did he survive on two bowls of fava beans a day? He wasn't allowed a drink of tea for several long months, until one of his jailers took pity on him and improvised a paper funnel to drip the precious liquid into his mouth through the latticed peephole. As he speaks, Azzam shuts his eyes and inhales the aroma of the warm drink. The people in the audience feel for him.
He shows everybody the tiny wireless radio provided for him by the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and a jumping rope. (The Arab criminals jailed in Israel can watch TV, use computers and talk on the phone, yet Israilis do not value human life and treat prisoners badly). He jumped rope counting to 28,000 every day. This is how he killed time and kept his sanity in his tiny cell. (Arab terrorists jailed in Israel are allowed to study for academic degrees, alas, in Hebrew, and can obtain Bachelor's and Master's degrees in political sciences, geography, history, etc., yet it is the Israilis who treat prisoners badly and do not value human life).
The radio has a special place in Azzam's story of how he survived in hell: he improvised an aerial from a piece of wire, tied it to the door and fiddled with the buttons until he heard "This is Radio Israel Station B, the morning news show with Aryeh Golan." This is how I became a dedicated consumer of Radio Israel news programs. It felt as if the entire State of Israel was sitting with me in my cell. I felt closer to home."
Two and a half years into captivity, all hope of freedom seemed lost, and Azzam tried to kill himself. He started complaining of headaches and backaches and the guards would bring him painkillers, which he hid in a plastic bag. One day he was supposed to receive news from Israel. But the news never came. Feeling hopeless and abandoned, he swallowed the pills: "You only live once. My cell was not fit to house a human being. My wife had to see me like this. My brothers were angry. That was no life for me. I wanted to die. After I took the pills I felt terrible abdominal pain, I became dizzy and I threw up. I was foaming and bubbling at the mouth. I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember was lying in bed in the prison infirmary. The doctor told me they had pumped by stomach. He gave me a mirror and told me to look at myself: I was unrecognizable, emaciated with bloodshot eyes. He encouraged me: Only an innocent man would try to take his own life. Prove to them that you are not a spy."
Two weeks later, Azzam's brother Sami came to see him in prison and was very angry when he heard about the suicide attempt: "What are you trying to accomplish? We are working hard for your release. Do you want your wife to become a widow? Your children orphans? We are doing all we can to support them and you want to kill yourself?" It was then that Azzam realized that he wanted to prove his innocence and be able to return to Israel as a proud man.
After more than eight years in Egyptian prison, Azzam did indeed return to Israel as a proud man. He even talked to PM Ariel Sharon on the phone, and later met him at the Sheraton Hotel in Tel-Aviv where he was taken from the Taba border crossing. His brother had brought him the Israeli flag and some new clothes. Azzam proudly wrapped himself in the Israeli flag: "I was an Israeli soldier, I pledged allegiance to the state, I am a proud Israeli (you hear that, Avrum Burg?), and I am not ashamed of the Israeli flag."
Despite his great love for our country and despite his gratitude and love for Arik Sharon whom he calls his father, his liberator, despite the publicity and media coverage, Azzam is having a hard time regaining normalcy. He cannot find employment, he is frustrated and depressed. He seems to find solace in touring the country and telling his story again and again, in talking to young soldiers about Zionism and values. He can't let go of prison, and prison won't let go of him. He has nightmares and cries in his sleep. "Only last week my wife told me that I was talking and shouting in my sleep."
He was invited to light a beacon on Israel's Independence Day. As long as people recognize him in the street, as long as ministers and MK's call him on the phone, as long as he is an honored guest at the ceremonies for the completion of IDF officer courses, Azzam Azzam is there to share his experiences again and again.
- Are you a hero?
- I'm no hero.
- What are you then?
- A loyal citizen. (How do YOU plead, Avrum Burg?)

The Leftist Fascist

Ben Dror Yemini
Ma'ariv, June 15, 2005
(Shabbath supplement)

Years of dehumanization have turned the Jews' very existence into a menace to world peace. Years of demonization have turned Israel's very existence into a menace to world peace. Avrum Burg dehumanizes, demonizes and comes to the fascist conclusion: no right to exist.

These types are readily found in the extreme right. One can tell them by certain peculiarities: they deeply despise everyone who is not like them; they totally deny the other's right to exist as a human being; they totally deny the other's right to self-determination; they also deny the other's national rights.
In order to justify their existence, fascists resort to that old trick: dehumanization. Thus, the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians in particular, are nothing but a bunch of animals. All of them, without exception. As such they have no right to self-determination or to a state of their own.
All of this is perfectly mirrored by the extreme left fascism. The two are identical twins. Everything the right-wing fascist says about Arabs, the left-wing fascist says about Israelis and/or Jews. Israelis and Jews are thus demonized and dehumanized and can be turned into Nazis, or quasi-Nazis, who no longer have the right to self-determination and a state of their own.

Reinforcement player
The left-wing fascist camp in Israel has been joined by a fresh player, Avrum Burg. He no longer is a post-Zionist, he is anti-Zionist now. He is in favor of a Palestinian state. Or perhaps two Palestinian states, as fascist standards are double standards. Whatever the side you support deserves must be denied the side you oppose. Don't let Burg fool you! The fact that he quotes Ehad Ha'am and George Steiner doesn't mean he is less of a fascist. In true fascist fashion, he misquotes Ehad Ha'am. And Steiner is several sizes too big for Burg, but one can see why he clings on to him.
Steiner, an important and creative thinker, defines himself as a citizen of the world, a Diaspora kind of Jew. In fact he is cosmopolitan and radical. His ideal Jew is the wandering Jew. His texts are his motherland. But despite his critique of Zionism, Steiner also justifies it. He comes close to blaming Jews for anti-Semitism. He may have even crossed the red line. Not that he has done anything. "Jews are guilty of innocence", he says, in order to explain, or perhaps justify anti-Semitism. Everything Steiner claims, not always with great success, is regurgitated by Burg in a miserably superficial manner.
It is not by chance that Burg chose Hitler for the title of his book. Steiner got there ahead of him: The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. (A.H. being Adolf Hitler). The plot is not important here. Steiner's book concludes with Hitler's defense plea. The Nazi criminal miraculously turns accuser: "Did I declare the superiority of the Aryan race? It was the Jews who declared themselves the chosen race (ubermenschen). Did I invent genocide? You taught us how to destroy other peoples, the way you destroyed those you conquered in your Promised Land." Mind-boggling demagoguery. On the one hand, Steiner engages in an intellectual exercise. On the other hand, his text becomes anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist. Steiner tries to explain that Hitler's convincing argument, which remains unanswered, is a technique employed by Dostoyevsky as well. In fact, he even admitted that he doubts that there is an answer. His mind was probably made up.
Burg tries to plagiarize Steiner, but the results are disastrous. Steiner managed to link between Herzl and Bismarck's nationalism. Burg, the little imitator, claims that the Israeli nationalism equates pre-Nazism. The original is wrong, and the copy – a disgrace. Three years ago, Burg published an article justifying the Palestinian shaheeds and blaming the Israeli for the suicide bombings. One can look hard and still find no facts, no evidence of the Hitlerism taking root in our bosom. This is dehumanization at its most monstrous. It is fascism.
We honor Burg by comparing him to Steiner. Steiner is a man of controversy. He sometimes hesitates. He even admitted last year that anti-Zionism is a pretext for anti-Semitism. But there, he sprouted a wild weed that pretends to walk in his footsteps.

Humanism and its opposite
Decades of blood libel, brainwashing, dehumanization and demonization have created the Jew whose very existence threatens world peace. Decades of blood libel, brainwashing, dehumanization and demonization have created Israel whose very existence threatens world peace.
This is exactly what left-wing fascists do, those who call themselves anti-Zionists. That's exactly what the extreme Islam, such as Hamas, does. This how low Burg has sunk. He has dehumanized Israel: the Jewish State threatens world peace, and has come to the only logical conclusion – the State of Israel has no right to exist. Fascism is the opposite of humanism. If humanism is all about recognition of rights, fascism is all about the denial of rights. Burg, at the height of his gall, dares call himself a humanist.

A swamp of lies
Facts? What about them? Is there a grain of truth in the libels spewed by Burg & Co.? The world is currently witnessing terrible and horrible war crimes that have nothing do to with Zionism, Jews or Israel. One may, can and should criticize Israel. But one must also put things in perspective. Since most of the criticism directed at Israel targets "occupation", it might be a good time to tell the truth about this occupation. During the 40 years of Israeli occupation, less than six thousand Palestinians have been killed. The absolute majority died in war operations. Very few of the nearly six thousand can be defined as victims of "war crimes". Very few.
Every armed conflict in the world claims far greater numbers of victims and causes far greater suffering among civilians. In just one week of conflict, more Muslims were butchered in Srebrenica, Europe, that in the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. In just one week, more civilians are massacred in Congo than in the entire 40 years of occupation. In Saddam's heyday, every single month ten thousand individuals were murdered in Iraq, obviously more than in 40 years of occupation. The NATO air strikes campaign against Milosevic's rule in Serbia exacted many more innocent civilian victims, relatively, than the Israeli occupation.
There is no national conflict generating such a small number of casualties. And I am not claiming that all Israeli actions are clean. But examining the global scale of atrocities committed against mankind in the last century alone, if Hitler were top of the list, Israel would only make to the last occupants at the bottom of the list, perhaps even the last.
But let us not confuse Burg & Co. with facts and figures. They are holding fast to demonizing. Blood libels have always been the anti-Semites' lifeline, just as they are the lifeline of those who hate Israel. They just can't do without the defamation. Take e.g. a large scale ground operation in Gaza – most Israelis are against it, despite the Qassams. But Burg claims most Israelis are in favor. And by the way, most Israelis would be justified to such a large scale operation. But that is not the point. The point is that Burg is living in a swamp of lies. And he just can't do without those lies. Because that is the essence of fascism. That is how Kahanists think of Muslims. That is how Hamasniks think of Jews. This is how Burg thinks of Israelis.

The jeep has nothing to do with it
It is high time one put Burg back in his place. Him and his friends from the radical islamists, the neo-Nazi right and the radical left. Not because of his salary and not because of his jeep. Not even because of his superficiality – after all it is hard to find intellectual depth in a person who adopts Azmi Bishara's ideas, but because of his support for Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak. It is hard to define Burg's sort as "serious" when he chooses to live in Europe, but at the same time vehemently asserts that Sarkozy is a "threat to world peace". After all, Burg was supposed to be a Zionist, according to Nordau's definition of Zionism as an extension of European borders into the Middle East. Except Burg has no idea who he himself is. He is against Zionism because we have built a wall separating us from the East. He is anti-Zionist by virtue of his being European and cosmopolitan.
Burg must be put back in his place because he is a fascist, an anti-Zionist fascist. And if anybody wanted more proof that fascism and anti-Zionism go hand in hand with idiocy and meanness, with dehumanization and denying the very right to exist, there comes Burg to provide it. But please don't thank him; we didn't really need more proof.

Yelena Warshawskaya

Eli Brandstein
Ma'ariv, July 5, 2007


64 years ago, Yelena Warshawskaya, a Jewish warrior, died defending Estonia's capital. Her grave was located two and a half months ago. Yesterday she became the first Red Army combatant to be laid to rest on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, with full military honors.

What were the chances of Yelena Warshawskaya, a Jewish girl who died fighting the Nazis in Tallinn 64 years ago, to be buried in Jerusalem? What were her chances to become the first Red Army soldier to be given a full military funeral in Israel? Slim. But that's exactly what happened yesterday. Israel Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv recited Kaddish over her grave. Next to him stood one of the Chief Rabbis of Russia, Berl Lazar, the President's Military Secretary, Col. Shimon Hefetz, who laid a wreath on behalf of the IDF, and the Russian ambassador to Israel, Piotr Stegniy. Israeli soldiers carried her coffin covered by a Shield of David. When the coffin was lowered into the grave, the Army Chief Rabbi recited "El Male Rahamim" (Most Merciful God) in her honor.
Yelena was sixteen and a half years old in 1941 when the Nazis invaded the USSR. A talented musician, she had been born in the Ukrainian town of Poltava, but moved to Moscow together with her parents, in order to study at the prestigious Gensin Institute. Althoug a painter, her father joined the Red Army. Eventually, Yelena and her family, along with millions of other Soviet citizens, were evacuated to Central Asia, away from the front line. But idealistic Yelena had other plans, so she jumped off the train and reported to the nearest enlistment station, where she persuaded the recruiting officer that she was old enough to join the army as a nurse.
She was assigned to an artillery regiment where she fought with great courage. She received several citations and decorations, including "The Red Star", for saving the lives of hundreds of Soviet soldiers and officers. She even captured two German officers during the battle of Oriol in 1943. Yelena was killed during the battle for Tallinn, between the Soviet and German armies, either from a stray bullet or a shell, while tending to the wounded in the field hospital.
Yelena's mother returned to Moscow towards the end of WWII, and found her husband recovering from combat wounds. Their soldier son had been killed in battle and declared MIA. Grieving over the unbearable loss of her own two children, Yelena's mother adopted two orphaned nephews.
Nobody had known where Yelena's grave was until two months ago, when the government of independent Estonia decided to dismantle the monuments of "Mother Russia's glorious Red Army troops", mainly to remove the monument raised by the Soviet authorities in memory of the liberating Red Army, including the mass grave of 12 soviet soldiers, among them Yelena, and relocate them to the military cemetery in Tallinn.
The Russian minority residing in the city took to the streets in violent demonstration that killed a person and wounded several others. Russia threatened economic sanctions against the rebellious Baltic state, but the Estonians didn't flinch. They wanted rid of the monument that reminded them of the Soviet occupation. So they exhumed the remains of the fallen soldiers and invited the families to give them proper burials elsewhere. Berl Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, called on Yelena's parents and suggested they give her a Jewish burial.
Vladimir Parnas is an Israeli citizen dividing his time between Israel and Russia. After some research, he discovered that Yelena was a long lost cousin. He contacted Rabbi Lazar, who suggested that Yelena be buried in Israel. The Rabbi also wrote to the Ministry of Defense, and asked that Yelena be laid to rest on Mount of Olives and even promised to fund the entire operation. Yelena was laid to rest in the civil section of the cemetery.
Zecher Tzadika Livracha.

Iraqi young woman undergoes heart catheterization in Rambam Hospital, Haifa

Yonathan Halili
Ma'ariv

There are three Iraqis receiving medical treatment in the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel as we speak. A 30-year-old Iraqi woman underwent cardiac catheterization in order to seal an atrial septal defect. The entire procedure, performed by Dr. Avraham Lorber, was watched by a group of senior Israeli cardiologists attending a National Cardiology Seminar on invasive cardiology at Haifa's largest hospital. The young Muslim woman's identity was kept secret, or the life-saving procedure performed in Israel might cost her her life.
She was referred for treatment in Israel by the Shevet Achim group, a Christian organization who helps residents of Arab countries travel to Israel for medical treatment, in attempt to bridge gaps and bring Muslim and Jews together.
Two more Iraqi patients are currently being treated in Rambam: a two month-old baby who had surgery two weeks ago and a child who had surgery today.

I wanted my unborn son to be a shaheed

Like I said, Jewish mothers want their sons to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, painters, pianists, or something like that when they grow up. I thought Palestinian mothers wanted their sons to be terrorists or suicide bombers when they grow up. I was wrong: they don't want their children to grow up. In fact they don't want them to be born at all. There is no way, no way we did to them what the Nazis did to us, yet we would never send our children, mothers or ourselves to kill innocent civilians in Germany. There is something very wrong with the Palestinians, something bordering on severe mental disease. Plus they lie through their teeth like there is no tomorrow. Please watch out for: physicians in Gaza issue fake medical documents for human bombs. Nursing staff in Ramallah hospital assist and support terrorist activities. Arabs residing in Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva are willing to assist suicide bombers. The two devils' whores never said anything about being relieved that they didn't kill Israelis, civilian or military.

Shimon Iphargan
Maariv, June 29, 2007

Fatma Zeck, a 39-year-old mother of eight, and pregnant with her ninth child, lives in Sajjaiyah, Gaza. Her niece, Roda Habib is 30 years old and a mother of four. They were on their way to a double suicide bombing in Israel. They left Gaza for Ramallah where suicide belts would be waiting for them. Then they were to blow themselves up in Tel-Aviv and Netanya, respectively.
Luckily the Shabak arrested them at the Erez crossing, in the nick of time. Suit has been filed against them in the Beer-Sheva District Court.
Zeck and Habib and are not the first Islamic Jihad women activists to be apprehended minutes before the carnage. The transcript of their interrogation provides a good insight into the reasons why Gaza women, married with children, are eager to sacrifice themselves for the Palestinian struggle. In addition, the two also revealed how they forged medical documents to gain passage into Israel, and also how they recruited other suicide bombers, mainly female students.


"Two months ago, my son Mahmoud came to me and told me that he wanted to martyr himself in Israel", Zeck told the police and the Shabak. He was planning to infiltrate Israel from the Sinai. He drilled crawling and other military skills. At the same time a student from Zeitoun told me she was interested in becoming a suicide bomber in Israel. I referred her to one of the Islamic Jihad activists. He took pictures of her and promised to get back to her. I was planning to blow myself up 4-5 months ago. I wanted to kill Jews as allah ordered us, that is by sacrificing myself to allah. I contacted Hisham al-Ajla from Sajjaiya, who is in charge of Islamic Jihad public relations in Gaza. I had met him four years earlier, when I worked in the Islamic Jihad employment office for women in Gaza. He is a friend of Mahmoud. My niece Roda also wanted commit a suicide bombing in Israel. Four months ago I took Roda to see a doctor whose name I forget, so he could give us letters to enter Israel. We asked the doctor to help us blow ourselves up. We sent the letters to the authorities and obtained entry permits via the Erez crossing for medical treatment. Then we met with Mahmoud and Hisham. Hisham videotaped me and Roda, separately and together, holding hand grenades, shotguns and korans. We recited our last will in front of the camera, we said our names and declared that we wanted to martyr ourselves. Then we went home."

Zeck goes on to say how Islamic Jihad handlers trained her and her niece for the "operation": "Hisham told me about two months ago that I have to learn how to shoot, so that I won't be afraid. I practiced on an M-16 rifle and a Kalashnikov. He also showed me how to assemble and dismantle them. Roda and I also learned how to shoot rockets. Then Abu-Sajjad showed us how to detonate an explosives belt. He told us that the belt looks like a zipper vest. He had already sent a suicide bomber into Israel, but he failed because he didn't know how to detonate it. He also said that the vests were made of cotton, they were very light and easy to put on and take off. He showed us how it was wired, and how to connect the wires in order to detonate it. We were to look at the "on" and "off" buttons. He advised us to wear long sleeved dresses, so that the wires wouldn't show. Then he videotaped us again, and I urged the people of Gaza, Hamas and Fatah, to stop killing one another, to unite and behave like brothers. There was a young man there, Abu-Abdallah. He said that if we had any trouble with the vests, his relatives in Jerusalem would help us ready ourselves for the bombing. Abu-Sajjad instructed us to say we were going to Ram-el-Arabiyah hospital in Ramallah, where two nurses (male and female) would assist us. Also a business man, whose name I don't know, was to take us to a hotel after we did some x-rays. The plan was that the business man would drive us to where we would blow ourselves up.
Abu-Sajjad said we didn't need to know the names of those who were to assist us. When we left for the Erez crossing, I put a small prayer book in my purse along with some money and some clothes. After that we were arrested by the Shabak. They ordered us to take our clothes off and to wear clothes that they gave us. They treated us well. We told them the whole truth."
Zeck told the investigators that she came up with the idea of the double bombing, in Tel-Aviv and Netanya, at the entrance to a shopping mall, in a restaurant or a soldiers' hitchhike post. The operators gave the two women 3,000 NIS (~700 USD) for food and taxi fare. She also revealed how the Islamic Jihad appointed her head (princess) of the propaganda (preaching) committee of the organization. The investigators asked Zeck whether she wanted an abortion, so as not to be delivered as a prisoner. Zeck: "My friend and I wanted to go to heaven as soon as possible. There is nothing more for us in this world. When my son is born, he will also be a shaheed."

Habib, the second terrorist, admits that she dreamt of commiting a suicide bombing in Israel for a long time, because of Israeli actions against the residents of Gaza: "Fatma called and told me that Abu-Sajjad agreed to dispatch me on a suicide mission in Israel. My cover for gaining entry into Israel was the need to undergo urgent surgery in the Ramallah hospital. He took me to a doctor friend of his who drew up forged documents. The next day my aunt Fatma and I received SIM cards from the activists, so that we could call when we reached the hospital. Abu-Sajjad said that someone was going to meet us at the hospital, give us the vests, and explain to us once again how to detonate them. I took my kuran so I could pray on the way. I agreed to blow myself up on behalf of the shaheeds and prisoners held in Israeli jails. Abu-Sajjad also told us that another girl he had sent to Israel had failed and had to return to Gaza. Fatma is a coordinator between the Islamic Jihad terror wing and the girls willing to martyr themselves. A 20-year-old mother of a little child volunteered for a suicide mission, but the organization rejected her because she was too young. Abu-Sajjad assured us that in case we failed, we would be able to return to Gaza without any problem. My husband wouldn't hear about the bombing. He pleaded with me to stay home, for the sake of the children, but I told him I my mind was made up."
Habib told the investigators that she was instructed to travel to Beer-Sheva where someone would be waiting with the vests: "Abu-Abdallah's relatives in Beer-Sheva were willing to assist suicide bombers, and they would give us the vests. Abu-Sajjad claimed responsibility for the Eilat bakery bombing where three people were killed in a suicide bombing. Fatma and I were instructed to blow ourselves up in a restaurant, market, cafe, bus stop, or wherever we saw crowds of Jews. Fatma suggested we go to Tel-Aviv, because there would be many soldiers. Fatma's son wanted to shoot at soldiers near the Sinai. Abu-Abdallah instructed us to be faithful to the organization and not divulge secrets of te organization or betray our handlers. He explained that the vests contained liquid explosives and ball bearings and promised that we would go to heaven. We had to blow ourselves in different locations. Our operator had to decide which of us was to go first."
During the interrogation, the two said they regretted their deeds.
Habib: "The members of the organization made cynical use of us. I am sorry about what happened".
Zeck: "When in court I asked the judges to forgive me for what I did and I thank allah that I am alive. I made a big mistake. I am the one to blame. I am very happy that my niece and I are alive and that our children are not motherless."

How humane do I have to be? A couple of hundred of Palestinians are stranded in the Erez crossing sleeve or tunnel. They want Israel to let them travel to Ramallah. How? How? Young Palestinian men = terrorists.
Palestinian women (even pregnant ones) = terrorists
Palestinian children = we all saw their kindergarten horror shows.
Palestinians working for Doctors without Borders = terrorists.
Palestinian doctors and nurses = terrorists.
Why should we let them travel to Ramallah? So they can pick up explosives vests and blow themselves up in Israel?

Tali Fahima to teach filmmaking

The Sapir college students are in for a ghastly surprise: Tali Fahima, the Israeli tramp sentenced to three years in prison for consorting with the enemy, Zacharia Zbeidi, the commander of the al-aqsa brigades in Jenin, is scheduled for a guest lecture. Now where did I leave my barf bag? And who do you think is her host? Eyal Sivan. What's this person doing here? Was he exiled from his exile?

Almog Boker
Ma'ariv, June 19, 2007


Film students at the Sapir College were surprised to find out that Tali Fahima, of all people, the one convicted of assisting the enemy in time of war, contacting a foreign agent, possessing a weapon without a license and supporting a terror organization, is to deliver a guest lecture on ethical dilemmas in documentary films.
The al-aksa brigades commander in Jenin may have been amused by this notion, he is after all Fahima's close buddy. Not so the Sapir students, who have no intention of attending the lecture: "We do respect freedom of speech, but the lecturers are supposed to teach, not engage in political activities. Instead of preparing a good lecture, they invite Fahima, a convicted criminal who served time for consorting with the enemy. I wouldn't be suprised if they bring Ismail Haniyeh next", said an angry student.
Fahima was invited by none other than Eyal Sivan (and here). He really got on the students' nerves when he called Fahima "a boundary breaker". The students demanded that Fahima's
lecture be called off, as they see no reason why someone who endangered state security become
involved in teaching activities. "It is sad when our teachers are using academia for peddling their political agenda instead of being role models for the students", says one cinematography student. "There is no way I'm going to attend her lecture. And if I am on campus that day, I shall protest this woman's presence as I see fit."
Professor Zeev Tzahor, Sapir College president commented that he does not interfere academic considerations. As for inviting Fahima: "She's paid her debt to society, now she is an ordinary
citizen."

Well, you see, I beg to differ, she is NO ordinary citizen. Ordinary citizens do not hang out with terrorists in Jenin. Ordinary citizens to not help terrorists plan atrocities against soldiers and fellow citizens. Ordinary citizens do not go to live (and fornicate) with wanted terrorists. Ordinary citizens do not go to jail. Having political convictions is one thing, being a kapo is another. Why not invite Igal Amir? He took just one life. Zbeidi took more. Fahima was his accessory. Is trying to destroy the State of Israel a lesser crime than the assassination of a prime minister?
And why is that clown Sivan teaching in Sapir, where students are afraid to go to class and sleep in their dorms because of the Qassam salvos showered on them from Gaza?

Not without my daughter a la Egyptienne

Yehudith Silberstein
Ma'ariv, June 19, 2007

The whole world is condemning Israel for racism, war crimes, apartheid, oppression, the death of Jesus, all the wars in the world, the sinking of the Titanic, and I suppose we may have had something to do with with the dinosaurs' extinction as well. So I can't quite figure out why Sudanese refugees are seeking asylum in Israel, why Gaza residents are not ashamed to admit that Hamas is worse than IDF, actually even worse than the Nazis, while I thought the title was reserved solely for us, or while other Gaza residents stranded at the Erez crossing are clamoring to be allowed into the West Bank. Go to Egypt! Leave us alone! Get on with your lives! Let us get on with ours! Anyway, before I whip myself into a frenzy over Hamastan and Fatahland, there's this pretty little story in today's paper, a variant of films we've already seen, such as Not without my daughter, or Desperate rescue. What I mean is that with all the badmouthing we are attracting, people are still turning to us for help. Like this Polish woman held hostage by her Egyptian in laws. Let me give you a bit of an intro: Muslim men require that their wives (four allowed, but who's counting) convert to Islam. The happy bride only needs to say a couple of times something like la-la-la -y-la-la-la and she's ready to wed, go to bed and start procreating. Now she and her children are the husband's property. Oh, she may be allowed to sod off, but the children must remain in the father's custody to be brought up as allah-fearing Muslims without ever again seeing their heart-broken loving mama, who is usually written off . The in laws play along and so do the authorities, as women, especially gullible white girls who still think of Arabs as tall, dark and handsome petrodollar princes, have no rights in Islam. But they do in Israel, even foreign women. The following drama unravelled at the Taba border crossing between Egypt and Israel.

Ten years ago an Egyptian man and a Polish girl met in the US, fell in love and got married. Eight years later, Sara, their little girl was born. But the couple was growing apart, so the husband asked his wife to go live with his parents in Egypt. He stayed in the US and travelled to Egypt every now and then to see them. The young woman couldn't get used to life in Egypt and wanted to take her daughter and leave. The husband wouldn't hear of it. He gave her back her Polish passport (gave her back her passport, the woman was a prisoner!) and said she was free to leave whenever she wished, but Sara would have to remain in Egypt. Two years later (two years, it's a prison term) the woman called her sister in Poland and asked her to help her take Sara out of Egypt.
A few days ago the sister flew to Egypt with her eight-year-old son and the two sisters left for the Sinai with their children. Sunday morning (two days ago), the women gave the little girl a haircut and dressed her up as a little boy. The aunt took Sara pretending she was her son and went to the Taba border crossing, where she told the Egyptian border guards that she and her son wanted to pay a short visit to Israel.
Once in Eilat, they spent the night in a hostel. Yesterday morning they took a taxi and asked to be driven to Taba. When they reached the border crossing, the aunt gave the driver 270 NIS (~65 USD), entrusted him with a bag, asked him to wait and went to the border terminal. The driver waited for hours, but the woman didn't return. Not knowing what to do, the taxi driver took the little girl home with him.
At 1 p.m. the mother arrived at the Israeli terminal of the Taba crossing. During the routine security check, the Israelis became suspicious and took her to the police station. It didn't take long for the woman to confess that she is a Polish citizen who had been held against her wish in Egypt and that the previous day her sister had smuggled Sara into Israel. She also told them her sister had left the little girl in the care of a taxi driver and showed them his business card. The driver was contacted and asked to bring the little girl to the police station. All the while the sister and her son were being questioned by the Egyptian police on the other side of the border.
Sara's mother was questioned by the Israeli border police all through the night. Initially, the police wanted them to return to Egypt, but began looking for a solution when they understood how dangerous the situation was. They involved the Polish embassy, the US embassy and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The police was reluctant to handle the case on their own, because of the possibility of being accused of assisting in kidnapping a minor from her family and allowing her to be smuggled into Israel. While the mother was waiting for the official decision, the female officers took Sara girl for a walk in the park. And the little girl, with her cropped golden hair, smiled and laughed, obviously unaware of the drama unfolding around her.

Testimonies from the Jewish Quarter (the Rova) of the Old City of Jerusalem

I recently watched a documentary about the fall of Jerusalem in May 1948. Those who were born and lived there before 1948 still call anything outside the walls "the new city". In 1948 about 120 Jewish soldiers defended the Jewish Quarter against the Jordanians. Despite plans to place Jerusalem under international control, the British abandoned their positions or simply relinquished them to Jordanian soldiers and armed Arabs civilians, while restricting Jewish soldiers and even civilians from entering the walled city. They also confiscated their arms and ammunition, and even shot and killed some of them. When the 20 or so remaining Jewish soldiers ran out of ammunition, and the Jewish civilians took refuge inside one of the syangogues to escape the ruthless Jordanian artillery fire into their houses, Moshe Rusnak, their commander of the Jewish defense unit, decided to surrender to the Jordanians. When the Jordanian commander realized that he had been held at bay by two dozen young Jews and Jewesses, he arrested a number of civilians, old men, including a 90-year-old one, and several children and took them to Jordanian prison camps. Just to save face. (photo: Moshe Rusnak signing the surrender agreement.)

Colonel Abdullah el-Tal, one-time commandant of the Jordanian Arab Legion, in describing the destruction of the Jewish Quarter, wrote in the volume of his Memoirs (Cairo, 1959): "... The operations of calculated destruction were set in motion.... I knew that the Jewish Quarter was densely populated with Jews who caused their fighters a good deal of interference and difficulty.... I embarked, therefore, on the shelling of the Quarter with mortars, creating harassment and destruction.... Only four days after our entry into Jerusalem the Jewish Quarter had become their graveyard. Death and destruction reigned over it...." "As the dawn of Friday, May 28, 1948, was about to break, the Jewish Quarter emerged convulsed in a black cloud - a cloud of death and agony."

Jonathan Sidon
Jerusalem weekend supplement,
June 8, 2007


Eli Kedar was born in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. He was taken prisoner by the Jordanian legion in 1948. After liberation, he returned to his home and became commander of the Jerusalem Division in the 1967 war. Shmuel Even-Or (Orenstein)'s father was the Western Wall rabbi until he was shot and killed during the War of Independence. Puah Steiner was expelled from the Jewish Quarter in 1948, and returned in 1967.

Dawn, June 7 1967. Eli Kedar, commander of the D company of the 163 regiment of the Jerusalem Brigade was standing outside the Dung Gate. Behind him an army of photographers and reporters were getting ready to immortalize the Israelis entering into the Old City. Eli, however, suspecting that the Jordanian Legion was lying in ambush, was in no hurry to lead his troops in. Having lost communication with his commanders, he had to make a strategic decision: push forward towards the Western Wall or turn South toward the Jewish Quarter, where he had been born, raised and expelled by the Jordanians. Eli chose his childhood home over the ultimate Jewish symbol (and over his own fair share of glory). "I walked down the same route the Jordanian legion had walked when they conquered the Jewish Quarter in 1948", he recalls. "But instead of finding the enemy, I found white rags and kaffiyas. Even when we reached the Rova there was no resistance, it was deserted. I know the area like the back of my hand, so I combed it quickly. Even though I had been away for 19 years, it looked almost the same. Then Eli and his soldiers turned to the Kishla building, but were met with gunfire. "Paratroopers emerged from David Street, all of a sudden, and I had no idea how they got there. There officer was equally surprised and asked me what we were doing there. I told him that I was going to the movies."

Later that day, when the Old City was about to be liberated, Eli was overcome by the desire to fulfill an old dream - after all he was so close to his childhood playground. It didn't take him long to jump into a Jordanian military vehicle parked near by and drive to his parents' house in the German Colony, a mere three minutes' drive. He gave his surprised father a khaki uniform and helmet and drove him back to the Rova: "My father's eyes filled with tears when we stood in front of the old house. He started running about and touching the stones, saying over and over again that this was the happiest day in his life."
Eli Kedar (formerly Mizrachi) was born in the Jewish Quarter in 1932. The Orensteins had moved nextdoor in the early 1940's. Avigdor Yitzhak Orenstein was the Western Wall rabbi until 1948. "My father's task was to supervise the daily prayers and to send daily reports to the chief Rabbis and to the National Committee who had appointed him", recalls the rabbi's son, Shmuel Even-Or (b.1929). "In those days the Wall was very different from what it is today. The Arab residents of the Old City would pelt us with stones, or ride their donkeys close to the Wall with the sole purpose of soiling the ground with animal dung. There were many restrictions on the Jewish worshippers - blowing the shofar before Yom Kippur was forbidden. I have childhood memories of the British police chasing and beating those who breached this order."
Puah Steiner, a sixth generation Jerusalemite, was born in the Jewish Quarter in 1941. "Even as a little girl I understood that the Rova had been conquered", she recounts the events of that fateful day in May 1948. "Everybody was broken hearted. The Jordanian legionnaires were looting and stealing everything they could lay their hands on. My sister and I had to walk among tongues of fire until we were outside the walls. When we heard that our father had been taken prisoner by the Jordanians we were devastated."

The Siege and the Detention
On November 29, 1947 the United Nations voted to terminate the British Mandate in Palestine and to allow its partition into two states. The next morning, residents of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem found themselves under siege, in appalling conditions. The British policemen displayed mostly passivity. At the end of January 1948, 19-year-old Shmuel Even-Or was serving with the Palmach in the Negev. He was notified that the Arabs had blown up his parents' house in the Rova: "Our house was known as the Orenstein outpost, under the command of my brother Avraham. When the house was blown up he was home with my mother, and they were both wounded. The following day the British blew up what was left of the house, so I had to find lodgings elsewhere in the Rova." Eli was 16 years old when the War of Independence broke out: "I was working in a carpenter's shop outside the city. One day after work they simply wouldn't let me go home, so I went to my relatives' house. I managed to return to my parents' house during Passover (3-4 months later), when I was allowed back into the City to deliver matzoth."

The situation in the Rova deteriorated further in mid-May, when the British left. "I had terrible nightmares every night", says Puah. "One evening we heard horrible screams: 'Arabs with knives', and everybody scrambled towards the inner houses for cover. We thought the Arabs were coming to slaughter us, and we had had nothing to defend ourselves with. I grabbed my mother's skirt and we started to run with the others. Everybody was certain that this was our last day. Everybody was crying and saying the prayers for the dead. My father said something that I cannot forget to this day: 'I pray they take pity on women and children, and if heavens decide that we part, remember that the Torah is the only important thing the world. When you grow up, marry Torah students.' Then we heard that the Arabs had gone elsewhere, and we were able to return home. For us it was a miracle."
Eli was posted on Karaim Street, in an abandoned British post, where he was manning a Tommy gun. "For days I was stranded there without a chance to see my family. I was even shot in the arm when the Arabs stormed us. When I got back to my post, we were practically out of ammo. So we threw potted plants at the enemy." The news of rabbi Orenstein and his wife's death during a Jordanian shelling was a very severe blow for the Rova residents.

"Naturally, I wasn't there,", recalls Shmuel. "When I reached the new city nobody wanted to give me the bad news. It was terrible losing both my parents like that."
By the end of May, 1948, the Rova fell and most of its residents were taken prisoners, some willingly. Eli: "I was too young to become a POW, but my mother said we had better split the family. So I joined my father, who had been taken prisoner along with other men. She stayed behind with the other children. Strange as it may sound, when I tried to surrender, the convoy of prisoners had already left, so I had to run after them." Eli spent nine months in Jordan as a POW, in Umm-el-Jamal, close to a military airport by the Iraqi border. "What I remember mostly from that time was forever standing to attention in the blistering sun for the roll call. The Jordanian soldiers always had the count wrong, and each time they came up with a different number. One day, after Hanukkah, I tried to escape disguised as a Bedouin. I had worked out the times the Jordanians went on patrol, but on that very day they changed the routine, so I got caught. A few months later, we were liberated. Groups of prisoners were returned to Israel. My father was among the first while I was freed with the last groups. When they told me I was going home, I decided I wanted a souvenir, so I stole the lock and keys to the camp. When the Jordanians discovered the loss they went crazy. They kept us there for several more hours, but in the end they let us go.
At the same time, Puah's father, Shlomo, was also in a prison camp in Jordan. His family was evacuated to the Katamon neighborhood in Jerusalem, including Puah: "My mother was a very strong woman and she managed to keep the family together and alive. I remember mostly how badly I missed my father. He sent us letters via the Red Cross, but he was forced to write them in English. He was urging mother to take care of our education. One night, in February 1949, a military vehicle stopped in front of our house, and father stepped out of it. Even though he was a liberated prisoner of war, he felt compelled to bring us presents: very good quality blankets. One of them was made into a winter coat for me. My two-year-old sister didn't remember father at all, and had a hard time getting used to him. She kept asking my mother when this man was going to leave."

Back to the Rova

"...a shocking picture was unfolded of the results of this policy of wanton vandalism, desecration and violation perpetrated during the period of Jordan occupation from 1948 onwards. In the Jewish Quarter all but one of the thirty-five Jewish houses of worship that graced the Old City of Jerusalem were found to have been wantonly destroyed. The synagogues had been razed or pillaged and stripped and their interiors used as hen-houses and stables. In the ancient historic Jewish graveyard on the Mount of Olives, tens of thousands of tombstones had been torn up, broken into pieces or used as flagstones, steps and building materials in Jordanian military installations and civilian constructions. Large areas of the cemetery had been levelled and converted into parking places and petrol-filling stations. ... The Western Wall holds a unique place in the history and faith of the Jewish people. For nineteen centuries Jews flocked to the Western Wall from all parts of the world to pray and worship before it. It would not cross the mind of Jews to impair in any way the sanctity of the Western Wall.The interest now evinced by the Jordanian Government in the Wall is surprising against the background of the vandalism perpetrated there by that Government when it was in occupation of the area. The Jordanian Government deliberately profaned the sacred character of the Wall by erecting adjacent to it structures of secular services, warehouses and toilets, and converting its immediate precincts into a slum."

Eli did not move back to the Rova after the Six Day War: "I could have moved back if I wanted to. But all through the years I asked myself what I was going to do there and I found no solid reason to buy a house. Perhaps I was wrong, but I am happy where I live now."

Puah's felt the exact opposite when Jerusalem was liberated in 1967. Even though she didn't liberate the city with her own hands, and due to pregnacy complications, she managed to visit the city several months after the war, but when she saw her old home she became very emotional and wanted to move back in for good: "When I first set foot in the Rova after so many years, I nearly fainted. Every alley and every house took me back in time to my childhood. When I stood in front of our old house, I saw yeshiva students studying the Gemara. I thought to myself that my father would have been pleased: he used to sit in the same room and study the same thing. Puah was willing to move back into her house right there and then, but when the euphoria dissipated, bureaucracy took over: "A lot of people wanted to move into the Rova, so we had to draw lots. We were not lucky enough. Others drew the lucky numbers." Ten years later, Puah and her husband managed to buy an apartment in the Rova and they have been living there since: "I admit that we are living in crowded quarters, and it is sometimes very noisy, but I feel that heavens guided me to the Old City. We considered moving out several times, but my son said that nobody leaves the Rova. I agreed with him. One cannot be a resident of the Rova and ignore its rich history and heritage. This is why I put my childhood memories in a book, 'Out of the Overthrow' where I describe the fall of the Rova.

Shmuel still feels closely connected to the Rova and its heritage, although he now lives outside Jerusalem. He is the director of the Association of the 1948 Defenders of the Rova and is an authority on the history of the place: "I feel it is my duty to tell the story of what happened there, how the residents fought for their home and ideology with all they had. It is very important to teach the young generations about what happened in the Old City before 1967."

Divided for 19 long years

*The Jewish Quarter is situated in the South-Eastern part of the Old city of Jerusalem.

*Archeological digs found evidence that the Rova was inhabited in the First Temple period.

* In 1267, rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, the Ramban (Nachmanides, not to be confused with the Rambam, Maimonides, rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) arrived in the Old City.

*He founded a synagogue in the Rova, which is named after him.

* The first cabbalist was born in the Rova in 1543, rabbi Yitzhak Luria, Ari the Holy.

* A synagogue in the Rova was named after him.

* On the eve of the War of Independence there were 1,700 Jewish residents in the Rova.

* There are now 3,500 Jewish residents in the Rova.

* The Jewish Quarter is the third largest among the four quarters of the Old City.

* It is smaller that the Muslim and the Christian Quarters, and larger than the Armenian Quarter.

* The Rova attracts around 7 million visitors each year, among them 1.5 million tourists.

* The youngest fighter who gave his life in the War of Independence was Nissim Guinny. He was ten years old.

*There has been an almost uninterrupted Jewish presence in the Rova since the days of the Crusaders.

*The only 19 years WITHOUT a Jewish presence in the Rova was between 1948 (when the Jordanians seized the Old City) and 1967 (when it was liberated by Israel).

*Archeological digs of the Rova have been conducted since 1969, when the Society for the Restoration and the Development of the Jewish Quarter was founded.

*The digs unearthed important finds dating back to 1948 in a water hole.

*It came as a complete surprise, because Moshe Rusnak, commander of the Rova defense unit, ordered the destruction of all weapons and ammunition before the Jewish defenders surrendered.

* Nobody knows who hid the arms in total violastion of that specific order.

* The only mosque in the Rova was erected in the 15th century by a Jew who converted to Islam following an argument with his neighbors.

*The mosque is not open for religious services.

*There is a special Arab-owned bakery in the Rova: it has all the required kosher certificates.

*Its specialite de la maison is a pastry is called "hamama" - bird, because it is shaped like the beak of a bird.

*Bread is baked according to an old secret French recipe, a sort of local baguette.

*According to legend, the Messiah will come when the Hurva (ruined) synagogue has been rebuilt for the third time.

* The Society for the Restoration and the Development of the Jewish Quarter is rebuilding the Hurva synagogue.

*This would be the third time, as the synagogue was destroyed in 1720 and 1948. (Two days before the fall of the Jewish Quarter in 1948, the Jordanians blew up the synagogue and the Jordanian commander in charge reported to his superiors: "For the first time in a 1,000 years, not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. No building there stands undamaged. This makes the Jews' return here impossible." However, in 1967 the Jews returned. The Jewish Quarter was rebuilt, but the Hurva remained in its desolation and a long-running architectural disagreement began.)

*The synagogue will probably be ready in a year and a half. Prepare thyselves!

Excerpts from LETTER dated 5 March 1968 from the permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary General

Fwance is losing it completely!

Orr Heller
Maariv, June 14 2007 (from Paris)

Israel's hopes of strengthening ties with France once Mr. Sarkozy moved into the Elysee turned out to be exaggerated: the town of Pierrefitte, North of Paris, has to decided to adopt arch terrorist Marwan Barghouti and make him an honorary citizen. Former West Bank Tanzim commander, Barghouti is currently serving five life terms plus forty years in Israel on several counts of murder and attempted murder of Israeli civilians (and of a Greek monk) in terrorist attacks masterminded and sponsored by him during the second intifada. Two weeks ago, the Pierrefitte city council made this decision on the grounds that "Barghouti is being punished for his political convictions."
Jewish communities all over France were shocked by this decision and were quick to issue a harsh condemnation of the Pierrefitte city council and even demanded that the decision be reversed.

I suggest they simply adopt Barghouti and offer him residence in Pierrefitte so that he can spread his political conviction among the North African Arabs who aren't quite so pleased with their life in the douce France, and teach them a thing or two about intifada, not just rioting and burning cars, but the real staff - daily suicide bombings, road bombs, shooting ambushes. I mean if your heart bleeds for him, do something useful, for crying out loud!

Remember!

Dalia Mazouri
Maariv, April 15, 2007

Six survivors were chosen to light the six memorial beacons on this year's Holocaust Memorial Day. They were young when they parted with their parents and siblings and were left to deal alone with the Nazi war machine. They acted with great valor. These are their accounts:

David Gur was born to a family of four in Okany, Southeastern Hungary, in 1926. In 1938 the Hungarian regime began to implement anti-Jewish laws. Imbued with Zionist ideals, David decided to move to the Land of Israel. But first he had to travel to Budapest and learn a useful trade. He was apprenticed by a master builder and also became a member of the "Young Guard" (Hashomer Hatzair) underground movement.
In March 1944, Hungary was occupied by the Germans. David joined the underground movement and was put in charge of forging documents. One day he and his friends were caught by the Hungarian security services. They quickly swallowed the forged documents, but the equipment their were carrying gave them away. During the interrogation one of them died, and the rest were taken to a military prison in Budapest to be executed. However, instead of being march to the execution site, they were taken to the Swiss consulate where they were released. David discovered later that the resistance had bribed a senior officer in echange for their lives.
When the war ended, David found out that his father had been murdered in Auschwitz, but his mother and sister had survived. David resumed his activities for the Hashomer Hatzair. In 1949 the communist regime in Hungary outlawed the Zionist organization, so emigrated to Israel to smuggle Zionist youths into the State of Israel.
In 1985 David was one of the founders of the Association for the Research of Zionist Youth Movements in Hungary, and he is still an active member. He and his wife Naomi have three daughters and ten grandchildren.

Zanne Farbstein was born in Bardejov Slovakia in 1926. She was the seventh child of a religiously observant family. Her first memory of the war is of group of German soldiers breaking into her parents' home one Shabbat eve (Friday night). Her father's business was confiscated and her two older brothers were taken to a forced labor camp.
In March 1942 all girls below 25 years of age were ordered to report to the local school. Zanne and two of her sisters, Edith and Sarah showed up together with about one thousand other girls. Their father walked them to the school, and when they arrived, he burst into bitter tears and gave each one of his daughters a korona coin for luck. The three sisters were part of the first transport to Auschwitz. When they arrived, they were ordered to leave their possessions on the train, including their father's good-luck coins. After a few months in Auschwitz, they were taken to Birkenau for forced labor.
Thanks to her Aryan looks, Zanne survived several selektions and even managed to be assigned "desirable" jobs, such as clothes sorting or unloading luggage from the trains. One day she found her father's prayer shawl among the luggage she was unloading, and later she learned that he had been taken to the crematoria. The three sisters never missed a day's work, because they knew that the weak and the ill simply vanished without a trace. One day, Edith, the eldest, was weak and weary to go to work, and offered her good shoes in exchange for Zanne's worn out ones. The three of them knew what it meant. Edith was never seen again.
On January 18, 1945, Zanne and Sarah were forced to join the death march to Germany. But in one of the villages the German guards disappeared and the haeftlings were left on their own. Learning that the war was over, Zanne and Sarah went on to Prague and Bratislava, where they discovered that two of their brothers had also survived. They went back to their hometown for the emotional reunion of what was left of their family.
They remained in Bardejov and tried to go on with their lives. In 1949 the extended family was brought over to Israel aboard the Independence. Zanne is married to Moshe and they have two children and five grandchildren.

Yaakov Janek Hollander was born to a family of five in Krakow, Poland, in 1929. In 1942 the family was taken to the Krakow ghetto where Janek and his parents were separated from the other children.
The family was deported to a work camp and from here to Plaszow concentration camp. Janek remembers Plaszow as hell on hearth, because of the terror reigned on the inmates by camp commander, Amon Goeth, who was madly shooting at whomever he pleased. From Plaszow, Janek and Benek, one of brothers were taken to Starachowice and eventually to Auschwitz. There they survived a number of selektions, and were eventually taken to forced labor in a coal mine in Rideltau, where Benek severely hurt his leg. In March 1944 they were forced to march to Mauthausen. Benek could hardly walk because of his injured leg, but Janek begged him and urged him to go on. They reached the camp, but Benek didn't make it further. They were separated for the first time. Janek was assigned to a work detail and never saw Benek again.
In April 1945 the camp inmates were forced to march to Gunskirchen. Many died on the way. Rumors in the camp had it that the Germans had fled. Janek, weighing 33 kg (thirty three kilograms at age 16 !!!!!!!), barely able to stand or walk, managed to crawl outside the camp. He was found by the Red Cross and taken to the nearby hospital where he met soldiers of the Jewish Brigade and decided to join them and fight in Italy. But a group of Jewish war orphans was formed in Selvino, Italy, looked after by the Youth Aliyah in order to be relocated to Israel. One year later the children were put aboard the Catriel Hayaffe ship, but the British intercepted the ship and ordered her to Cyprus. In 1947 the children arrived at the Mishmar Hasharon kibbutz. Janek joined the Palmach Harel Brigade. He fought in the War of Independence and went on to found the Zeelim kibbutz in the Negev, together with other orphans he met in Italy.
After WWII, Janek learned that his father had been murdered in Auschwitz, his mother had been brought down by illness in Plaszow, his bother Dolek had been shot in Bergen-Belsen three days before the end of the war. In 1953 Janek married Dvora. They have two children and one granddaughter.

Yaakov (Jacki) Handeli was born into a wealthy family in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1928. In 1941 German troops marched into Thessaloniki and established the Jewish ghetto in the Baron de Hirsch neighborhood. The Handeli were also forced into the ghetto, in a humiliating display of Nazi force. Two weeks later Jacki's family was deported to Poland. Over 80 persons were forced into each car and travelled without food or water. Jacki learned his first German words on the train: "You won't need this any more!"
One week later the train arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the passengers were thrown out of the cars and underwent their first selection. After the selection Jacki never saw his parents and sisters again. He and his brothers were assigned to different work details in the camp. In addition to the harsh living conditions, Jacki and his brothers along with the rest of the Thessaloniki Jews suffered from isolation, because they didn't speak German, Yiddish or Polish and therefore couldn't communicate with the Germans or with the other Jews in the camp.
After his brothers died, Jacki remained on his own, until Thessaloniki boxer Jaco Razon took
him under his wing and helped him get more food and survive the terrible conditions in the camp.
In January 1945 the prisoners were sent on a death march. Jacki recalls the snow-covered road stained red with the blood of those who had been shot on the long march to Gleiwiz camp and riding towards Dora Mittelbau in open coal cars in the freezing rain without food or water. The journey ended in Bergen-Belsen where they remained until their liberation by British troops.
Jacki came to the Land of Israel in 1947 aboard the Pan York carrying South African volunteers, and fought in the War of Independence. No other member of his family survived the Holocaust. Jacki and his wife Rachel have two children.

Manya Brodetzky-Titelman, an only child, was born in Zhabokcrich, Ukraine in 1932. In July 1941 German troops marched into her hometown, followed by Romanian troops. The Jews were ordered into five cellars, where Romanian soldiers opened fire on them. Manya passed out and when she regained consciousness, she saw that her mother had been killed in the massacre. Her father also fainted and fell to the ground before the shooting began, and was also saved. Manya and her father remained hidden among the corpses until it nightfall. Then they went back to their house only to discover the neighbors had looted everything. They fled to the woods where they hid, hungry and thirsty, in the rain and the cold for a week. Eventually they decided to go back to their house.
A week later they were sent to the ghetto where they shared an apartment with several other families. They were hungry and cold all the time. There they found out that the bodies of their massacred relatives and friends were decomposing in the cellars where they had been shot. The local police ordered a number of adults and children to carry the bodies out of the cellars and bury them in mass graves. Manya recalls how she identified her mother's body by the red boots she had been wearing. She and her father hid the body and buried it near their home.
Towards the end of the war, the Romanian soldiers took all the Jews to the main square of the town to shoot them, but the German troops arrived unexpectedly and warned the Romanians that Russian troops were coming. The Romanians fled and everybody was surprised to find out that the German troops were in fact partisans in disguise.
After the war Manya went back to school and remained with her father in her hometown. The family immigrated to Israel in 1980. In 2003 Manya was part of a group of survivors who erected a memorial tombstone on the mass grave in her home town. Manya was widowed last month. Her husband, Boris, was also a Holocaust survivor and a Red Army veteran. Manya has two daughters, five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

Mordechai (Motke) Wiesel and his twin brother were born to a Haredi family of eight, in Szatmar (Satu Mare), Transylvania, in 1929. Nazi racial laws were enforced as soon as Germany invaded Hungary in 1944. Fearing for his childrens' lives, Motke's father sent three of his sons including Motke to work on a farm. A few weeks later the three brothers were sent to the town ghetto where they were reunited with their parents. Motke's family was part of the second transport to Auschwitz. He and his twin brother Meir managed to sneak close to a crack where they could breathe. They arrived at the camp on their 15th birthday. He remembers asking his mother why there were women along the tracks and what they were doing dressed in striped jackets and with their hair shaved off. She replied: "This must be a lunatic asylum sort of place."
During he first selektion Motke and Meir were separated from their parents and siblings whom they never saw again. When they went through the gate and read the "Arbeit macht frei" sign, Meir asked candidly: "How long do you figure we have to work here to be freed?" A week later the twins were dispatched to Krakow-Plaszow, to work on Schindler's pig farm and as
apprentice builders.
Later they were transferred to Gross-Rosen and from there to Langenbilau Sportschule near Reichenbach. Motke was burning with fever and barely made it to the train. On May 8, 1945, a Russian tank found its way into the camp. Motke and his brother moved into a vacated house in Reichenbach and stayed there until they regained their strength.
When they returned to their home town, they discovered that only their eldest brother had survived. The "Hagana" organization helped them flee to Italy via Austria, where they waited to be smuggled into the Land of Israel. In 1946 Motke boarded a ship, but it was intercepted by the British and forced to sail to Cyprus. He reached Israel in 1947, and joined his brother Meir who was waiting for him in kibbutz Sde-Nahum.
Motke joined the army and was wounded in the battles to open a route to Makor Haim. Later he fulfilled his dream to become an officer in the Jewish army. In 1952 Motke married Esther and they have two children and eight grandchildren.