Rabin Square on the Independence Day of Israel.
It is around the sunset that my friend Joel introduces me to his daughter. We get into her car and head to the school of her children in the east of Tel Aviv to attend an event. When we arrive, hundreds of people - students of all grades and their teachers, parents, and other family members - are already seated or standing in front of a big stage. The clock strikes eight, and a sudden sound of siren immediately fills the air. Everyone gets up and stands still. The siren is so loud that it is almost deafening at one point. After one minute, it stops.
9 AM
On Facebook, I read a post written by an Israeli woman. It was about what happened to her and her husband when the couple was in Brussels, Belgium last summer -- they were asked to leave a restaurant after waiters found out that they were from Israel, a manager at the hotel warned the woman to hide her bracelet that implied her being Jewish, and they were allowed to enter a church after faking their nationality. She wanted to share the story to bring lights on the fact that such hatred was still prevailing, especially as today is the Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the comment box, people argued over whether the story was real or not. |
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