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August 21, 2009
One victim had B.C. family
Gay teen centre shooting in Tel Aviv strongly condemned.
PAT JOHNSON
A masked gunman entered a community centre for gay youth in Tel Aviv Aug. 1, fired 15 shots, killing two and injuring, according to reports, at least 11, four critically. No suspect has yet been apprehended.
The attack, which took place hours before hundreds of thousands of Vancouverites took to the streets for the annual Pride Parade, is a reminder that the worst kind of homophobia still exists, even in countries where gays and lesbians are legally protected. For Carmel Tanaka, a Vancouver woman, the tragedy was far more personal.
Nir Katz, a 26-year-old volunteer counsellor at the centre, one of the two killed that night, was Tanaka's cousin and former roommate. The second murder victim was Liz Trubeshi, 16.
Tanaka had been to the gay centre with Katz and recalls the reaction of the young people to her cousin.
"The kids there loved him because he was a big kid," she said. "He knew exactly what they were going through and he gave each person respect. He wanted to provide gay youth in Israel the kind of place he would have liked to have had when he was younger. He wanted to make a place that was safe for gay youth.
"He truly was a sensitive soul, who really did care about everyone," she said. "It was no way for him to go. He was helping youth, who were just figuring out their sexual identity, as he hadn't gotten such support when he was growing up. I often went with him to the centre. It used to be a safe haven."
Tanaka said Katz had been openly gay in the army and extended his service until last year, serving in an elite intelligence unit. She describes her cousin as "a very smart, smart, smart boy" who worked in computers during his army service, was fluent in English and was studying at the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya at the time of his death.
"Nir was always a very positive boy who never said anything to hurt anyone," Tanaka said. "I don't think he even thought of things that would hurt anyone. In many ways, he was a child, always optimistic."
The daughter of an Israeli mother and a Canadian father, Tanaka has been back and forth between Israel and Vancouver, and spent a year at Tel Aviv University, during which time she lived with Katz.
"When I had moved to Israel in my second year of university, in 2005, my whole mission of going to study there was to get to know my family, my cousins," she said. "I only knew a fraction of my family.
"He was the one who was closest in age to me so I felt the need to get to know this cousin more," said Tanaka. She got the opportunity after finding the dormitories at Tel Aviv University not to her standards of comfort and, when the hot water disappeared, Tanaka had had enough and called her cousin.
"Hi, this is your cousin from Canada," she recalled, laughing through tears. "Do you mind if I move in with you? He came with his car and shoved everything in his car and I stayed for the year. He never once ever said he didn't want me there. We had our ups and downs. It was both of our first time living with roommates."
The cousins enjoyed themselves in Tel Aviv, frequenting the hot spots and going to Katz's favorite restaurants.
"Nir didn't know how to cook one bit," said Tanaka, but he strictly kept to a vegan diet. "He was such a firm believer in not eating animals or animal by-products. He was so passionate about it you almost wanted to be just as passionate and live a life like his."
Katz insisted on a half-hour a day of only Hebrew for the Vancouver-raised Tanaka. And Tanaka was there five years ago when Katz met Thomas Schmidt, whom he was intending to marry in Vancouver next March.
"From that moment on, it was us three. We were like a family," she said.
When she had the strength, a couple of days after the murders, Tanaka called Schmidt.
"That was such an awful phone conversation," she said. "We didn't really say much to each other, but just the silence, just the knowing, that I was somehow in the presence of Thomas...."
The family has seen tragedy before. Katz's father, Rami, was killed in 1990, when Nir was seven, during an incident known as the first Tze'elim Disaster, in which five Israel Defence Forces soldiers were killed by a shell during training.
By the time Tanaka went to Israel, Katz's mother, Ayala, had remarried, to a man with children of his own and Tanaka was moved by the closeness of the blended family of six children.
"There was such a love for the mom and what she had gone through and the fact that she had found love again in her life," she said.
Katz's extended army service was in keeping with a long family tradition of military service to Israel.
Katz's grandmother, Gita Katz, was a Holocaust survivor who became a nurse and a member of the Irgun (Ezel), who helped to collect ammunition in Europe to be shipped later to Israel to aid with the War of Independence. She arrived on the boat Altalena, which was the centre of a notorious battle at the moment of Israel's nascent history between the two main underground movements, the Haganah and the Irgun. Gita Katz became very active in the movement that would become the Likud Party, together with her first cousin Shifra Atlasovich, who was Tanaka's grandmother.
Katz's grandfather, Itzhak Katz, grew up in Israel, volunteered with the Jewish Brigade through the British army and was shipped to Europe to fight the Nazis, becoming one of the first Jewish fighters to face the horrors of the death camps after Germany was defeated. Later, he fought with the Palmach.
"Protecting Israel was a family legacy," said Tanaka.
"The day he died," said Tanaka, "he went and visited his grandmother, Vera Shiloh, and his grandfather, Itzhak. It was as if he was saying goodbye."
Tanaka and Katz had been e-mailing over details like cellphone plans in preparation for Katz and Schmidt's wedding here next year. Tanaka was already planning to go to Israel in October, but now, instead of renewing her friendship with her cousin, she will visit his final resting place.
Tanaka first learned of the attack while checking the news online during a slow Sunday at work. She recognized the centre immediately.
"The way I had interpreted the article, it was an organizer of the club and a girl who were murdered and they didn't release identities, so I didn't think it was Nir," she said. "So I sent Nir another e-mail, asking what happened and still not knowing."
She did not receive a response from the cousin she described as a "total computer geek who responded usually within seconds."
"I've never had such a rip in my heart when I made the connection between the murder in the club and Nir," she said. "He was starting a life outside the army," she said.
The murder of 16-year-old Trubeshi, who was in the centre because she was accompanying a friend who had recently come out, deeply pained Tanaka as well.
"This girl was doing God's work," Tanaka said.
Some parents who, before the attack, did not know their children were gay, have not visited them in the hospital, said Tanaka.
"No wonder these children went to this youth centre," she said.
Tanaka has been taken aback by the callousness of some Canadians in response to the murders.
"I have spoken to complete strangers about my cousin," she said. "They don't know I'm Israeli." Their attitude, she said, is that this sort of thing happens in the Middle East all the time. People blow themselves up.
"I'm finding here that people have a lack of empathy. When someone comes to you and says that someone close to them has been murdered, show some respect and offer condolences."
The investigation continues, but the murderer fled the scene and Tanaka is not optimistic he will be found.
"It's natural to want to find out who did this," she said. "It's never going to heal the pain of having lost someone who was so beautiful and a good person. But, if it can shed some light on the fact that homophobia is a serious issue not only within Israel, but worldwide, I think it's important that certain officials stand up and don't support what has happened. The worst part would be if they ignored it and let it slide under the carpet and they're not, and that's great."
Officials from the president and prime minister to both chief rabbis expressed grief at the attacks. President Shimon Peres, speaking before 70,000 people at Rabin Square a week after the murders, was eloquent in his solidarity.
"The shots which struck this proud community affected us all as human beings, as Jews and as Israelis," said Peres. "Everyone has the right to be different and proud ... I came to share your tears after the death of two young innocents. Be strong and courageous."
Vancouver Hillel has set up an account for Canadians to support the Tel Aviv gay youth centre (canadahelps.org/gp/4970). In addition to Tanaka, the Jewish student group had other connections with the centre. Earlier this year, the founder and chair of the centre, former Tel Aviv city councillor Etai Pinkas, visited the University of British Columbia and spoke on campus about gay rights and life in Israel.
The Tel Aviv centre is closed for now, but Tanaka contends it is more necessary than ever.
"This was a safe haven, just for young kids," she said.
A vigil in memory of the two murdered and in support of the living victims and the centre will be held in the coming weeks.
Pat Johnson is, among other things, director of development and communications for Vancouver Hillel Foundation.
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