חברת הלואו קוסט הקנדית אייר טרנזיט החלה לטוס ישירות בקו טורונטו ברלין. קו זה מאפשר לישראלים שמגיעים לברלין להמשיך בטיסה ישירה לטורונטו. הקו החדש יופעל בשלב זה רק בחודשי הקיץ: מטורונטו לברלין בימים חמישי וראשון ומברלין לטורונטו בימים שני ושישי
הקו החדש הוא בשורה טובה לישראלים שרוצים לטוס לקנדה. זאת, לאור העובדה שאל על הפסיקה את הטיסות הישירות שלה בין ישראל לקנדה לפני כשלוש שנים. ואילו חברת התעופה לאומית של קנדה אייר קנדה לא טסה כרגע לישראל לאור המצב הבטחוני המסובך
למי שבוחר לטוס באייר טרנזיט לטורונטו יש אפשרות גם לקחת טיסות המשך בשיתוף החברה הקנדית הנוספת ללואו קוסט אייר פורטר, ליעדים נוספים בקנדה בהם: מונטריאול, ונקובר, קלגרי, אדמונטון והליפקס. או להגיע בטיסות המשך מטורונטו ליעדים בארה”ב ובהם: לאס וגאס
הטיסות של אייר טרנזיט מטורונטו וברלין ובחזרה מתקיימות באמצעות מטוסי איירבוס החדישים שכוללים מאה שמונים ושבעה מקומות במחלקת תיירים, שמונים ושבע מקומות במחלקת הפריום ועוד שנים עשר מושבים במחלקת העסקים. אגב משך זמן הטיסה בין ברלין לטורונטו נאמד בכתשע שעות
הטיסות של אייר טרנזיט מברלין לטורונטו מאפשרות גם גישה נוחה לקנדה לנוסעים ממדינות נוספות באירופה בהן צרפת, בלגיה, הולנד ושוויץ
אייר טרנזיט שמתמחה בעיקר בחבילות נופש ליעדים באירופה, ארה”ב והאיים הקריביים נבחרה לאחת החברות הטובות בתחום זה בשנים האחרונות
ואילו חברת התעופה הלאומית של איחוד האמירויות איתיחאד שחידשה לאחרונה את טיסותיה לישראל, כחלק מההתעצבות הגלובלית שלה, חנכה לאחרונה קו טיסות ישיר בין אבו דאבי לטורונטו. קו זה מאפשר לישראלים לטוס ישירות לאבו דאבי ומשם להמשיך ישירות לטורונטו. הקו החדש בין אבו דאבי לטורונטו באמצעות מטוסי איירבוס החדישים מגדיל את הקיבולת של החברה של איחוד האמירויות בכשלושים אחוזים. ובכך החברה מגיעה ללמעלה ממאה יעדים בעולם תוך שימוש בצי מטוסים מתקדמים. מדי חודש החברה מטיסה קרוב לשני מיליון נוסעים בקווים השונים שלה
צי המטוסים של חברת איתיחאד מונה כיום מאה במספר כולל חמישה מטוסי מטען
איתיחאד כידוע טסה ישירות לישראל ומאפשרת לישראלים להגיע למגוון רחב של יעדים ברחבי העולם, באמצעות טיסות המשך משדה התעופה של אבו דאבי
הקו החדש בין אבו דאבי לטורונטו של איתיחאד כאמור מאפשר לנוסעים מישראל אפשרות להגיע לטורונטו, בדומה לאפשרות להגיע לברלין ומשם להמשיך באייר טרנזט הקנדית לטורונטו
כידוע לחברת התעופה של אחיד האמירויות איתיחאד יש מחלקת עסקים מפוארת ביותר שכוללת תאים פרטיים סגורים עם חדר שינה, מיטה פרטית וכורסה אישית ומקלחת
קנדה תכיר במדינה הפלסטינית
ראש ממשלת קנדה, מארק קרני, הודיעה לאחרונה כי קנדה מתכוונת להכיר במדינה הפלסטינית במושב השמונים של האו”ם שיערך בספטמבר. הוא הוסיף כי הכוונה להכיר במדינה הפלסטינית כרוכה במחויבות של הרשות הפלסטינית לבצע רפורמות נחוצות ומשמעותיות ביותר, לקיים בחירות כלליות בשנה הבאה ללא החאמאס, ולפרק את המדינה הפלסטינית מצבא. קרני ציין עוד כי קנדה עובדת יחד עם מדינות נוספות לקיים את פתרון שתי המדינות, ישראל ולצידה מדינת פלסטין, שהוא הולך ונשחק מול עיננו
זאת לאחר שבמהלך ועידת שתי המדינות שהתקיימה לאחרונה במטה האו”ם בניו־יורק ביוזמת צרפת וסעודיה, הכריזו מדינות נוספות על כוונתן להכיר במדינה פלסטינית, במסגרת העצרת הכללית של האו”ם הצפויה להיערך בספטמבר הקרוב. קנדה מצטרפת אפוא למדינות נוספות שהחליטו להכיר במדינה הפלסטינית ובהן צרפת, בריטניה,מלטה, ספרד, אירלנד ונורווגיה
On Sept. 30, Canadian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre will host Medicine Reimagined, an evening with Prof. Amitai Ziv, deputy director of Sheba Medical Centre and head of its Rehabilitation Hospital, which is the national rehabilitation facility of Israel. Ziv is also the founder and director of the Israel Centre for Medical Simulation (MSR), an innovation hub for improving patient safety and clinical training.
Originally from Montreal, Ziv is spending his sabbatical in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia.
“This will be the first Canadian Friends of Sheba event in Vancouver, as we launch our chapter here, and we are truly thrilled to welcome Prof. Amitai Ziv,” Galit Blumenthal, manager of donor relations and events at Canadian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre, told the Independent. “Our goal is to raise awareness of Sheba Medical Centre and highlight its profound impact both in Israel and on the global stage.”
Prof. Amitai Ziv, deputy director of Sheba Medical Centre and its Rehabilitation Hospital, speaks in Vancouver on the topic Medicine Reimagined. (internet photo)
Sheba Medical Centre was established in 1948. Located in Tel HaShomer, near Tel Aviv, its website notes the facility has 159 medical departments and clinics, almost 2,000 beds and 75 laboratories, and receives about 1.9 million clinical visits and 200,000 emergency room visits a year. Its seven major facilities comprise a cancer centre, an academic campus, a research complex and four hospitals: children’s, women’s, acute care and rehabilitation. It also has several centres of excellence and institutes, notably for cancer, and heart and circulation. It counts 10,000 healthcare professionals, 1,700 physicians and 200 PhD research professionals.
“I support them, along with many other Israeli institutions, as I feel that this is at least some contribution that I can make during these difficult times,” said Tova Kornfeld, who connected Canadian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre (CFSMC), which is based in Toronto, with the Independent.
“I sometimes feel powerless living here in Canada when I see what is happening in Israel,” said Kornfeld. “If I can help in any way, whether by bringing awareness to the work being done by the various organizations or by making financial contributions, then I feel I must. As far as Sheba is concerned, it stepped up to the plate when Soroka Hospital was hit by an Iranian missile and took in all the ICU patients.
“It is also the biggest rehab hospital in Israel and is providing rehabilitation for thousands of soldiers who have been injured since Oct. 7,” she added. “I have family members in the IDF and it is comforting to know that, if something were to happen to any of them, there would be hospitals like Sheba to care for them.”
Ziv’s areas of expertise are medical education, simulation and rehabilitative medicine, and he has served as a consultant and speaker at academic and health institutions around the world. The event in Vancouver will offer a look at Sheba Medical Centre and its innovations in, among other things, the rehabilitation field.
On Sept. 30, Vancouverites will also get to meet Einat Enbar, chief executive officer of CFSMC, which was established in 2017 to raise awareness and funds for Sheba Medical Centre, the care it offers, the research it conducts and the educational training it provides.
For Kornfeld, there is another aspect to supporting Israeli organizations and institutions. She hopes that financial and other assistance from the diaspora “gives the Israelis caught in the fray the message that we have their backs and that we are all in this together regardless of where we live. I would hope that this would be comforting to them when it appears that most of the world is against not only Israel but the Jewish people themselves.”
For more information on CFSMC and SMC, visit shebacanada.org. To attend the Sept. 30, 7 p.m., event in Vancouver (location upon registration), go to weblink.donorperfect.com/ProfAmitaiZivInVancouver. While free to attend, donations are welcome. Readers can email Blumenthal at galit@shebacanada.org with any questions.
The authors of Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025 sought to do two things in their research: assess the factual basis of war crime and genocide allegations, and examine how information is gathered and transmitted in conflict zones. Among the claims examined is whether enough aid was getting into Gaza from Israel. (IDF Spokesperson via besacenter.org)
A new study conducted by a team of researchers critically examines accusations that Israel committed crimes against humanity, such as planned starvation, deliberate massacres and even “genocide,” during the Israel-Gaza War, between Oct. 7, 2023, and June 1, 2025. Using a blend of quantitative-statistical analysis, forensic documentation, primary sources and comparative military history, the study aims to distinguish propaganda from fact and highlight systemic failures in major international information bodies. Its authors emphasize that their objective is not legal or moral exoneration, but a factual analysis of the methodologies and evidence behind genocide claims.
Research for the 311-page study – Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025 – was led by Prof. Danny Orbach, a military historian from the department of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Boxman, an expert in quantitative research; Dr. Yagil Henkin, a military historian at the Shalem Centre and the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security; and attorney Jonathan Braverman, a member of the Israeli bar and a lawyer for International Humanitarian Law. It is published by the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in collaboration with the aforementioned institutions.
The researchers sought to do two things: assess the factual basis of war crime and genocide allegations, and examine how information is gathered and transmitted in conflict zones, particularly in regions ruled by oppressive regimes and/or populated by closed societies with a strong “resistance” ethos. Special emphasis was placed on cross-referencing Israeli, Palestinian and international sources, while actively avoiding ideological bias and preconceived assumptions. The authors highlight that subordinating factual analysis to advocacy narratives can undermine public policy and distort ethical and legal discourse.
The study’s key findings are:
No basis for starvation claims prior to March 2025
• More food entered Gaza during the war than before Oct. 7, 2023. The claim that 500 aid trucks are required daily stems from a misrepresentation by United Nations bodies, one that was left unchallenged and unchecked. Prewar UN records cite an average of 73 food trucks per day in 2022. During the fighting (until Jan. 17, 2025), the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) recorded an average of 101 food trucks daily whereas retroactively corrected but still incomplete UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) data indicated 83 food trucks per day. Food that entered the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire should have sufficed until late July 2025, according to World Food Programme projections, even absent any aid following the resumption in the fighting. It is hard to explain this gap without considering extensive looting by Hamas, for which the study’s authors provide ample evidence.
• Although UNRWA initially reported a 70% drop in aid after May 2024 and the Rafah operation, it later retroactively corrected these reports. This correction was effectively unannounced and hence the supposed aid drop continues to be cited broadly.
• Contrary to the claim that 44% of Gaza’s food comes from local agriculture, the study finds this number was baseless even before the Hamas takeover. It is likely that, even in 2005, Gazan agriculture accounted for no more than 12% of Gazan caloric consumption and the number is almost certainly much lower today. The study further finds that even if every ton of crops produced in Gaza in 2011 (the last year in which an analysis was published) was substituted, the number of trucks entering Gaza per capita throughout the war would still be 58% higher per capita than it was in 2011.
• Notwithstanding the above, the authors strongly criticize the decision to stop aid to Gaza between March and May 2025.
No evidence of a systematic civilian targeting policy
While isolated incidents may point to negligence or localized misconduct and suspicion of individual war crimes, no evidence was found of overarching directives aimed at harming civilians. The authors did, however, try to map the patterns of Israel Defence Forces misconduct and possible crimes, and examine which crimes were probably more prevalent and which ones were relatively absent from this conflict.
Data manipulation by Hamas
The Gaza Health Ministry, per Hamas directives, categorizes all deaths as civilian. This manipulation has significantly skewed international reporting. Indications have been found for the inclusion of age-related natural deaths, particularly of women, in the ministry of health’s lists and exclusion of combat-aged men.
IDF’s exceptional precautionary measures
The IDF has implemented unprecedented steps, such as early warnings, precision targeting and mission aborts to avoid civilian harm. These actions, while costly to the IDF, have reduced non-combatant casualties.
Evacuation zones were significantly safer
According to partial data, less than 4% of deaths occurred in Mawasi and the central camps – areas marked as evacuation zones by the IDF – undermining claims of deliberate attacks on safe areas. The failure of the UN to cooperate with the establishment of such zones resulted in considerable loss of civilian life.
Systematic failures in UN and NGO reporting
Numerous claims were based on circular citation, opaque assessments and unannounced retroactive corrections. For instance, UNRWA’s truck count discrepancies were corrected without sufficient publicity. Updated UN data confirms Israel’s consistent assertion of increased aid after May 2024.
A precedent for this kind of flawed reporting can be found in the aftermath of the 2009 Gaza War. Former UN jurist Richard Goldstone, who led the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, later expressed regret over some of the report’s conclusions. In a 2011 Washington Post op-ed, he wrote: “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”
The suffering of civilians in Gaza is both tragic and undeniable. However, this research calls on the international community to ensure that humanitarian discourse remains anchored in verifiable facts. Without accurate data, advocacy loses credibility – and future atrocities may be overlooked due to inflated or politicized claims.
While the suffering of civilians in Gaza is indisputable, the authors caution against humanitarian advocacy narratives built on unverified or manipulated data. Their study does not aim to exonerate or diminish the suffering experienced, but rather to protect the integrity of academic discourse and, by implication, humanitarian and public discourse. When advocacy eclipses accuracy, policy decisions become distorted and genuine accountability is compromised, the authors warn. They urge the international community to uphold higher evidentiary standards in conflict reporting – regardless of the actors involved.
Broader methodological analysis
This study is not unique to the Israel-Gaza conflict. Similar patterns of humanitarian data distortion were identified in Iraq under sanctions, raising broader questions about the methodologies employed in closed or authoritarian environments.
The study also examined other conflict zones, such as Iraq in the 1990s. During that period, it was widely claimed – based on Iraqi government data and a UN Food and Agriculture Organization survey – that hundreds of thousands of children died due to sanctions. The survey reported a rise in infant mortality from 40.7 to 198.2 per 1,000 children. These findings were later revealed to be fabricated by Iraqi authorities. Even when the researcher who conducted the survey acknowledged being misled, the correction failed to impact the wider humanitarian discourse.
Likewise, inflated assessments of violent and nonviolent Iraqi deaths during the Iraq War were widely disseminated and accepted during the conflict – only being laid to rest definitively in 2023.
“Humanitarian bias”
The authors introduce the term “humanitarian bias” to describe a tendency among aid organizations to accept alarming claims from stakeholders in order to mobilize urgent action. In this context, factual corrections are often met with hostility or ignored altogether – undermining accuracy in humanitarian reporting. Even when myths are disproven, corrections are rarely incorporated into public or academic understanding.
The study proposes a new methodological framework for analyzing violent conflicts – one that prioritizes cross-referencing multiple sources, systematic scrutiny and transparency, and resistance to political and media-driven narratives.
The authors emphasize that credible allegations of war crimes demand serious legal and ethical investigation – not only due to their consequences but also in adherence to international law, Israeli law and moral standards.
Orbach warns: “If every severe urban war were defined as genocide, it would ultimately dilute the legal and moral power of the term. ‘Genocide’ would become an empty political slogan, rather than a tool to prevent atrocities.”
This study builds on that call for greater evidentiary caution, particularly in war zones governed by authoritarian regimes.
Debunking the Genocide Allegations can be downloaded at besacenter.org. Following the publication of the Hebrew edition on July 4, 2025, there was extensive feedback from readers, critics, experts and commentators. In some cases,there was valid criticism that warranted corrections and revisions. Consequently, the English edition is not a mere translation of the Hebrew version but a thoroughly revised, corrected and updated work.
The August 2025 Israeli Voice Index, conducted by the Viterbi Centre for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), asked whether Israel should agree to a deal that would include the release of all Israeli hostages, the cessation of hostilities and the complete withdrawal of the Israel Defence Forces from Gaza. Sixty-two percent of Jewish Israelis and 81% of Arab Israelis support such a deal.
Looking at political orientation among Jews, a large majority on the left (92%) and centre (77%) support such a deal, while the right is more divided, with slightly more in favour (47%) than opposed (44%). A breakdown by vote in the 2022 elections reveals a majority of supporters for this deal among voters for all opposition parties and all coalition parties, except for Religious Zionism voters.
Military operations in Gaza
A plurality of Jewish Israelis (49%) support the decision to expand military operations in Gaza while the overwhelming majority of Arab Israelis (81.5%) oppose the decision.
“There is a substantial share of Israelis who support a hostage deal that involves a full withdrawal from Gaza while also saying they support the expansion of fighting in Gaza,” said IDI’s Prof. Tamar Hermann. “This is due to the context-specific nature of each question – many Israelis prioritize bringing the hostages home even at a great cost, but if a deal cannot be struck, they support the expansion of operations in Gaza.”
Jewish settlement in Gaza
Similar to IDI’s polling from November 2024, last month, 53% of Jewish Israelis and 86.5% of Arab Israelis oppose Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. Most on the left (93%) and centre (77%) oppose settlement while most on the right (61%) support it. Rates of support increase in tandem with levels of religiosity, with the highest rate of support among Haredim (75%) and lowest among secular Israelis (21%).
The release of hostages
More than half of the Israeli public (53%) think that their leadership is not making every effort to secure the release of the hostages (Jews, 51.5%; Arabs, 63%). A breakdown by political orientation (Jews) shows that, on the right, as in the past, 63% think that the leadership is indeed doing everything it can. By contrast, this view is held by 28.5% in the centre and 6% on the left.
Control of Gaza after war
Similar to past measurements, a plurality of Jewish Israelis (44%) believe a multinational force should control Gaza after the war, as does 22% of Arab Israelis. Twenty-three percent of Arab Israelis believe the Palestinian Authority should control Gaza.
The burden of fighting
A plurality of Jewish (34%) and Arab (37%) Israelis assess that Israeli society can only bear the burden of fighting for another few months. A decreasing share of Jews think Israelis can bear the burden for as long as it takes, down from 39.5% in March 2024 to 28% today.
National mood
In this latest survey, IDI found no major changes in the levels of optimism about the future, excepting a slight improvement (2% in the total sample) in the share of optimists about the future of the economy. There was a small decline in optimism about the future of security (3%), though this is within the margin of error and thus should not be taken as evidence of a new trend. As in previous surveys, in three of the four indicators (security, democracy and economy), the share of optimists is larger among Jews than among Arabs. Overall, in all four indicators and among both Jews and Arabs, less than half the public are optimistic.
The Abraham Accords
Five years after signing the Abraham Accords, 46% of Jewish Israelis say the accords met their expectations, down from 64% in 2021, one year after signing them. Among Arab Israelis, 41% say the accords met their expectations, similar to 43% in 2021, and a substantial share of Arabs (28%) say they don’t know.
Survey methodology
The survey was conducted via the internet and by telephone (to include groups that are under-represented on the internet) Aug. 24-28, 2025, with 600 men and women interviewed in Hebrew and 150 in Arabic, constituting a nationally representative sample of the adult population in Israel aged 18 and over. The maximum sampling error was ±3.58% at a confidence level of 95%. Field work was carried out by Shiluv I2R. More of the report and the full data file can be found at en.idi.org.il/articles/61601.
Every area of Southwest British Columbia is exposed to some form of natural hazard, warns Nicky Hastings, a physical scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada at Natural Resources Canada, who spoke at Har El’s seniors lunch earlier this month. (photo by meggomyeggo / flickr)
Those who attended Nicky Hastings’ talk at Congregation Har El earlier this month came away with a renewed awareness of the many natural hazards we’re exposed to by living in British Columbia.
Hastings, a physical scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada at Natural Resources Canada, specializes in coastal science and disaster risk reduction. Her Sept. 3 talk at the synagogue’s regular seniors’ lunch was titled Living on the Edge: Geology, Natural Hazards and Risk in Southwest British Columbia.
Nicky Hastings (photo from Nicky Hastings)
Hastings explained that we’re located on the cusp of the Pacific Rim of Fire, an area prone to earthquakes and volcanoes. But we’re also exposed to flooding in the deltas and floodplains, snow avalanches, wildfires and their smoke, storm surges, sea-level rise and the effects of climate change. This means that every area of the region is exposed to some form of natural hazard.
“We know these hazards are here, and things need to be done to address them – and some of that mitigation is happening,” said Hastings. Drive the Sea-to-Sky Highway and you’ll see rock bolts attached to stabilize the slopes and reduce the risk of rockslides, she said. Lions Bay has a spill channel and catchment basin to catch the debris flows caused by intense periods of rain.
Modeling by the Geological Survey of Canada is being done to predict what earthquake ruptures might look like, and who might be impacted.
“We looked at two tsunamis that already occurred, to see how sea level might change if similar events were to recur, and our modeling did not show those big, 20-metre waves we saw in the Indonesia tsunami,” she said. “It’s more the west coast of Vancouver Island that will likely be impacted.”
While those of us who live in Delta and Richmond might feel comforted by the 600-plus kilometres of dykes that protect the shorelines, that infrastructure can give a false sense of security, Hastings said. “Dykes are engineered structures that need to be maintained and updated. They can breach,” she said. The 2021 floods, for example, caused $2.7 billion of damage and claimed the lives of 6,000 animals.
Hastings encourages everyone to participate in the annual Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills to prepare for earthquakes, which will be held on Oct. 16, at 10:16 a.m.
“Sign up online at shakeoutbc.ca and practise this drill so it becomes second nature,” she said. “In an earthquake, you have seconds to minutes to act to protect yourself, and you need an emergency readiness kit so you can take care of yourself for 72 hours.”
Scientist Nicky Hastings recommends that everyone sign up for the annual Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills, which takes place Oct. 16.
A new early warning system for earthquakes will send out alerts that can give businesses time to shut down elevators, and cities time to stop hospital operations, open fire station doors and stop trains, she said.
Other monitoring programs and mapping are being done on volcanoes like Mount Baker and Mount Garibaldi. While the last major eruption was in the 1800s, Hastings warned that volcanoes can cause big landslides and volcanic ash can damage aircraft, collapse roofs, cause lung damage and injure animals and plants.
“The seismic monitoring we’re doing creates more awareness – it gives us a chance to mitigate and know how to plan and prepare,”she said.
Hastings’ main takeaway was the need for Southwest BC residents to live with awareness. She lamented that, even with the warnings in place and the research her organization continues to do, communities are still building infrastructure in harm’s way, such as floodplains. Sustainable development in British Columbia, she said, requires striking a balance between growth and an ongoing awareness of the dynamic, hazard-prone landscape we call home.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.
Dr. Ted Rosenberg speaks with an audience member at the Medical Outcomes of Emerging Antisemitism event held at Beth Israel Sept. 4. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Dr. Ted Rosenberg never imagined he’d become an activist but, after the anti-Zionism and antisemitism he witnessed at the University of British Columbia faculty of medicine after Oct. 7, 2023, he couldn’t keep silent.
The 30-year practitioner, who resides in Victoria, addressed a group at Congregation Beth Israel on Sept. 4.
Rosenberg resigned from his post as clinical assistant professor at UBC’s faculty of medicine in January 2024, after repeated attempts to get the school to address antisemitism were essentially ignored. Since Oct. 7, he has written blogs, testified about the antisemitism before the House of Commons and, most recently, self-published the book Ayekha, Where Are You?
After Oct. 7, Rosenberg said he noticed that Jewish doctors weren’t regarded the same way they had been. Before that day, he’d experienced the odd antisemitic comment from patients. After it, he knew that a torrent of hatred towards Jews was coming, and that he needed the language to deal with it.
His activism began after 225 UBC medical students signed the petition “A Call for Action on Gaza,” which called for a ceasefire, condemned Israel as “a settler-colonial state,”
accused Israel of “collective punishment through indiscriminate bombing of civilians” and claimed that “Palestinian people have been continually abused, traumatized and killed by the settler state of Israel and its Western allies for over 75 years.”
In response, Rosenberg wrote to UBC president Benoit-Antoine Bacon, dean of the faculty of medicine Dermot Kelleher and other university officials.
“I assumed they didn’t understand these complex issues,” he said. “I explained to them that antisemitism leads to dehumanization, and I suggested we work together to meet with the students, talk about the petition and about antisemitism.”
Rosenberg described the dean’s response as a “boilerplate letter.”
“He said I could file a complaint through the university’s DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] program – which has nothing about Jews or antisemitism,” Rosenberg noted.
Demoralization set in as further incidents in the faculty failed to garner any action from the university.
Some 284 physicians wrote to the dean, describing the dangerous environment at UBC for Jewish students, faculty and patients. They received no response. Then, a professor Rosenberg worked with posted a picture of Jesus in the rubble of Gaza on social media. Rosenberg made the decision to resign.
“I’d been begging these leaders to stand up and speak about this, to model respectful dialogue, and no one was saying anything,” he said. “I realized the faculty of medicine had adopted hardwired ideological positions, and I felt I had to opt out and make a public statement about it.”
After his resignation, Rosenberg received a call from a retired dean, who admitted, in tears, how badly he’d felt about his colleague’s treatment. “He said the senior administration at UBC had silenced him and others, tying their hands. He spoke of how people were intimidated to speak out even when they shared my views, because they feared they’d be marginalized. He was looking for absolution.”
In May 2025, Rosenberg received a call from Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, requesting he testify in Parliament the following week about the antisemitism he’d experienced. Rosenberg felt an enormous responsibility to get his testimony right. “In my work as a physician, I look after old people. I’m not a genocidal maniac,” he said. “But that’s what my students are thinking about me.”
While antisemitism has not subsided, Rosenberg is optimistic that truth and sanity will ultimately prevail. In his work with Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism, he’s been writing letters to different medical departments, but, for the most part, those letters have been dismissed.
“I think there’s a systemic bias in the Western world against Israel and Zionism and a lingering bias against Judaism,” he said. “The title of my book, Ayekha, is a question to the world: where the hell are you? People need to wake up and look at the truth.”
Rosenberg noted that one requirement of entrance into medical school at UBC right now is a demonstration of your social justice activism.
“The epitome of evil in the social justice narrative is settler-colonialism, and the worst settler-colonialism is Zionism,” he noted of the school’s view.
“This means Jews are not going to get into medical school. I’ve had Jewish medical students email me to say they changed their names to non-Jewish names, just to get in. This is real, and BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] is happening. We need to speak out against it and be aware that DEI does not include us as Jews.”
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond.
Mosaics attesting to the wealth and prosperity of the ancient Samaritan community were found in Kafr Qasim, located in central Israel. (photo by Emil Aladjem, IAA)
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has sent out several press releases in the last couple of months. Here is a roundup of what has been discovered recently in a few excavations.
An agricultural estate, about 1,600 years old, was uncovered in Kafr Qasim, located in central Israel. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the IAA and financed by the Israel Ministry of Construction and Housing prior to establishing a new northern neighbourhood, is within the boundaries of the archeological site Kh. Kafr Hatta.
The Samaritan settlement existed for about 400 years, from the end of the Roman period to the end of the Byzantine period (4th to 7th centuries CE). The site of Kh. Kafr Hatta is described in historical sources as the birthplace of Menander, the Samaritan magician, successor of Simon Magus, who was considered the father of the Gnostic sects and one of Christianity’s first converts.
Architectural elements decorating the 1,600-year-old Samaritan agricultural estate. (photo by Emil Aladjem, IAA)
According to IAA excavation directors Alla Nagorsky and Dr. Daniel Leahy Griswold: “The size and splendour of the buildings discovered, the quality of their mosaic floors and the impressive agricultural installations, all point to the great wealth and prosperity of the local Samaritan community over the years.”
In one of the buildings, a mosaic floor was preserved, decorated with a geometric pattern and vegetal images. Alongside its central medallion are acanthus leaves combined with rare decorations of fruits and vegetables, such as grapes, dates, watermelons,artichokes and asparagus. In the entrance to this room was a partially preserved Greek inscription wishing the building’s owner Good Luck!; the owner’s first name was common in Samaritan communities.
In the northern part of the estate were found an olive press, a warehouse building and a public purification bath, a mikvah. The proximity of the oil press to the mikvah was probably used to produce olive oil in purity. The olive press was carefully planned, consisting of two wings; the northern wing contained the main production areas, while auxiliary rooms were erected in the southern wing. In the production areas, two screw presses were found, as well as a large basin in which the olives were crushed.
An olive press for production of oil in ritually pure conditions and an adjacent ritual bath were part of a Samaritan settlement that existed from the 4th to 7th centuries CE. (photo by Emil Aladjem, IAA)
Over the years, the estate saw dramatic changes.
“The wealth and luxury of the buildings were replaced by oil production and agricultural installations. New walls damaged the mosaic floors, and the magnificent capitals and columns were integrated within the new walls,” said Nagorsky. She suggested that these changes are related to the Samaritan Revolts under the Byzantine rule – a series of 5th to 6th century CE uprisings against the Byzantine emperors, who enforced restrictive laws on members of other religions.
“What makes this site particularly interesting is that, unlike some of the other Samaritan sites that were destroyed in these revolts, the agricultural estate in Kafr Qasim actually continued in use, and even preserved its Samaritan identity – as evidenced by the Samaritan ceramic oil lamps uncovered in our excavation,” Nagorsky said.
According to Israeli Minister of Heritage, Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, “The discovery of the Samaritan agricultural estate illuminates another chapter in the common shared story of the ancient peoples of this land; foremost, in this period, the Jews and the Samaritans. These two ancient communities led their lives based on the Torah and shared common roots, and also experienced similar hardships during periods of antagonistic rule….These physical remains are another reminder that our heritage in this land is deep and multifaceted.”
* * *
The 2,800-year-old dam wall discovered in the City of David. (photo by Emil Aladjem, IAA)
A monumental dam excavated in the Siloam Pool in the City of David National Park has now been dated in a joint study by the IAA and the Weizmann Institute of Science, to the reign of the kings of Judah, Joash or Amaziah. Its construction may have been a creative solution to a climate crisis about 2,800 years ago, according to the researchers. The research was published in the scientific journal PNAS.
The wall uncovered in excavations of the Siloam Pool in the City of David National Park was built around 805-795 BCE. Its discovery was made by excavation directors Dr. Nahshon Szanton, Itamar Berko and Dr. Filip Vukosavovic on behalf of the IAA.
“This is the largest dam ever discovered in Israel and the earliest one ever found in Jerusalem,” the directors stated in a press release. “Its dimensions are remarkable: about 12 metres high, over 8 metres wide, and the uncovered length reaches 21 metres – continuing beyond the limits of the current excavation. The dam was designed to collect waters from the Gihon Spring, as well as floodwaters flowing down the main valley of ancient Jerusalem (the historical Tyropoeon Valley) to the Kidron Stream, providing a dual solution for both water shortages and flash floods.”
Dr. Johanna Regev and Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto of the Weizmann Institute explained: “Short-lived twigs and branches embedded in the dam’s construction mortar provided a clear date at the end of the 9th century BCE, with extraordinary resolution of only about 10 years – a rare achievement when dating ancient finds. To complete the climatic reconstruction, we integrated this dating with existing climate data from Dead Sea cores, from Soreq Cave and from solar activity records influencing the formation of certain chemical elements. All the data pointed to a period of low rainfall in the Land of Israel, interspersed with short and intense storms that could cause flooding. It follows that the establishment of such large-scale water systems was a direct response to climate change and arid conditions that included flash floods.”
The newly uncovered structure joins two other water systems from the same period discovered in the City of David: a tower that dammed the Gihon Spring and a water system that gathered water from the Gihon, directed through a channel into the Siloam Pool, where it was joined by floodwaters blocked by the dam.
These systems reflect comprehensive urban planning for managing Jerusalem’s water supply as early as the late 9th century BCE – clear evidence of the city’s power and sophistication.
* * *
Lamp wicks made of textiles, approximately 4,000 years old – among the oldest known in the entire world – were discovered during an archeological dig at the Newe Efraim antiquities site near Yehud, Israel. The wicks, uncovered in an IAA excavation, funded as part of development works by the Israel Lands Authority to establish a new neighbourhood in the city of Yehud, were preserved inside clay lamps, used for illumination in the Intermediate Bronze Age (circa 2500-2000 BCE).
The study was published in the scientific journal ’Atiqot, Vol. 118, published by the IAA.
According to IAA researchers Dr. Naama Sukenik and Dr. Yonah Maor: “This is a unique discovery that we did not expect could ever be found in the moist Mediterranean climate….Although wicks were a common product for lighting in the ancient world, the fact that they are made of organic fibres makes it difficult to discover them in an archeological dig. Even in cases where the organic matter is preserved, such as in desert climate conditions, it is difficult to identify a wick, unless found inside a lamp, since it has no special characteristics to distinguish it from any group of fibres, threads or ropes…. The fact that three wicks were found – and that one of them survived in its entirety, is especially surprising in the humid climate of the coastal plain.”
One of the wicks tested in the study was found intact. (photo by Emil Aladjem, IAA)
According to Dr. Gilad Itach, Yossi Elisha and Yaniv Agmon, the excavation directors on behalf of the IAA, “The wicks were discovered inside oil lamps uncovered in the graves alongside other burial offerings, including various types of pottery, animal bones, metal weapons and jewelry. While these lamps must have been used to illuminate the underground dark burial space during the burial ceremony itself, it seems that this was not their only function. The fire burning in a lamp has been associated with magical power since the dawn of humankind…. Admittedly, the Intermediate Bronze Age population in the Land of Israel did not leave any writings behind, but various sources from around the ancient Near East demonstrate the central role of fire in burial ceremonies. Just like today, thousands of years ago, the fire burning in a lamp symbolized the human soul. The common term we use today, ‘ner neshama,’ ‘the flame of the soul,’ probably originated thousands of years ago.”
Traces of soot were found in the wicks tested in the study, indicating these lamps were used; seemingly lit while the grave was prepared and/or during the burial ceremony. The analysis also revealed that the wicks were apparently made from reused linen fabric. “It is unlikely that an expensive textile such as linen would have been woven especially for an object intended for combustion,” said Sukenik. “We speculate that the wicks were recycled from other textiles, after their original purpose was completed…. The secondary use of textiles indicates smart economic conduct, in which precious raw materials were maximally utilized.”
כאשר גרתי בישראל צפיתי שהמדינה תלך למקומות לא נכונים והיא תעמוד מול סכנות הולכות וגוברות מכל הכיוונים. אחד מחברי הטובים טען אז שאני רואה שחורות, מגזים בפסימיות שלי ונבואותי הרעות לא יתגשמו. לאורך השנים האחרונות החבר שינה את דעתו לגבי נבואותי מקצה לקצה. ועכשיו הוא טוען שהמציאות הקשה בה ישראל נמצאת, היא הרבה יותר קשה ממה שחזיתי ולכן נבואותי היו אופטימיות מידי
אני יכול להבין את אלה שרוצים להיות אופטימיים, לראות את האור, לשמוח ולעסוק בדברים חיוביים. אך אסור לשכוח שמי שמתעלם מהמציאות הקשה ביותר בה ישראל נמצאת כיום, מאפשר לראש הממשלה המושחת, בנימין נתניהו, להמשיך בדרכו הגרועה תוך חיסול הדמוקרטיה. ההיסטוריה מלמדת אותנו שמנהיגים רעים הולכים ותופסים תאוצה כאשר אין כח גדול שעומד מולם ועוצר אותם. אזרחים שמעדיפים לעסוק בחיי היום יום ולהתעלם ממה שקורה בישראל, יתעוררו יום אחד ויראו שהדמוקרטיה נמוגה לחלוטין, שזכויותיהם נעלמו ואין להם יותר זכות בחירה. ישראל בשליטת נתניהו צועדת לכיוון המסוכן הזה במלוא העוצמה. כי כידוע נתניהו חושב רק על נתניהו ולא אכפת לו מאחרים, בהם המשפחות השכולות, משפחות החטופים, תושבי ישובי הספר ואחרים
כל עוד לא יתאגדו כל כוחות האופוזיציה בניסיון רציני להפיל את ממשלת נתניהו המסוכנת, כל עוד לא יצאו לרחובות מיליוני אזרחים להפגין נגדה ונגד המדיניות שלה, הרכבת שצועדת אל התהום האסוני הזה לא תיעצר. על תושבי ישראל לנקוט בכל הצעדים האפשריים לעצור את נתניהו וממשלתו הרעה ולמנות תחתם ממשלה שפוייה שתדאג לישראל ולא לעצמה. המלחמה בעזה מיותרת, עולה במחיר רב של חיילים שנופלים, החטופים לא משוחררים וגם פלסטינים רבים נהרגים ללא סיבה מוצדקת. לאור זאת, ישראל הפכה כיום להיות אחת המדינות המנודות והשנואות בעולם. ולא פלא שהאנטישימיות מרימה ראש, וישראלים ויהודים נפגעים כל הזמן פיזית מאלה ששונאים אותם. האנטישמיות צפויה להחמיר כל עוד צה”ל ממשיך לפעול בעזה ולפגוע ולהרוג אזרחים מקומיים שם
את הישראלים המתנגדים לנתניהו אפשר לחלק לשלוש קבוצות: הקבוצה הראשונה כוללת את אלה שיעשו כל מאמץ להילחם בו, להביא לפיטוריו ובעצם פיטורי כל הממשלה הנוראית הזו. הקבוצה השנייה כוללת את אלה שמבינים שישראל תמשיך להידרדר לתהומות עמוקים עוד יותר. ועל כן מבחינתם הפתרון היחידי האפשרי הוא לעזוב את המדינה. הקבוצה השלישית כוללת את החלשים והתבוסתנים המציינים כי אין מה לעשות אלה לקבל את גזרות נתניהו כמו שהן, ולקוות לטוב
בתור אחד שנולד וגדל בישראל עצוב לי לראות את תהליך הנסיגה הגדולה של המדינה וההידרדרות הבלתי נתפסת הזו. יש שטוענים שכל הרע החל מהשבעה באוקטובר, אך אני חושב שזה התחיל הרבה שנים קודם לכן. בחודשים האחרונים, חברו הטוב של נתניהו במשך שנים, הסופר איל מגד, התנתק ממנו והחל לבקר אותו בחריפות. מגד הוא דוגמא טובה לחברים ומעריצים מושבעים של נתניהו ומשפחתו, שיום אחד התעוררו והבינו שהוא אסון למדינה. אני כבר אמרתי זאת בסוף שנות השמונים. נתניהו תמיד היה נתניהו: נוכל, שקרן פתולוגי, אינטרסנט ומגלומן. טועה מגד ה מציין כי הוא הבחין בתכונותיו השליליות של נתניהו רק אחרי השבעה באוקטובר. מגד היה עד אז פשוט עיוור שהעריץ את נתניהו
אם לא יקומו הישראלים ברובם ויהפכו לאקטיביים כדי להעיף את שלטונו של נתניהו, ישראל תלך לאבדון. אם לא תקום ממשלה חדשה ושפויה בקרוב זה יהיה אסון. הנזק שנתניהו גורם כל יום הוא כבד מנשוא.
Comedian Elon Gold will perform a full show of comedy at the launch of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign on Sept. 11. (photo by Limor Garfinkle)
Comedian Elon Gold helps the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver launch its annual fundraising campaign on Sept. 11.
The last time the Jewish Independent spoke with Gold, in 2019, he was driving from his home in Los Angeles to Las Vegas, with his family, for a Jewish National Fund event. This time, he had returned home from New York, where he performed gigs all over the East Coast, from DC to Jersey to the Catskills.
It’s a tradition for Gold and his family – wife Sasha and their four children – to spend summers in New York, though, this year, his oldest son, 24, has a job, so had to stay in Los Angeles.
“We all have really fun summers together because both of our families are from New York,” said Gold. All their oldest friends are also in New York, he added. “So, it’s like a summer of recharging, with our roots and our family and all that.”
Amid performing at various venues, working on a film, writing a TV series and creating a new comedy special, among other things, Gold gets great joy from doing shows for Jewish organizations.
“My motto is, ‘everything matters and nothing matters.’ That’s how you should look at life, and that’s how you should look at gigs,” he told the Independent.
The nothing matters isn’t about being “lackadaisical and lazy and dismissive,” he said, but more about reducing the stress level.
“It doesn’t really matter, it’s just a gig. If it doesn’t go well, I’ll have another one tomorrow, whatever, it’s fine. It takes the pressure off,” said Gold. “But everything matters is also a big part of it, because everything does matter, and every gig, to me, is important.
“It’s important for myriad reasons. The whole community is getting together and to let them down would be very upsetting, not just to them, but to me,” he said. “I always call these nights of community, unity and comedy. So, it does matter that you not just do well, but I try to hit it out of the park every time.”
Elon Gold performs in Vancouver Sept. 11. (photo by Limor Garfinkle)
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel, community gatherings like the Federation’s campaign launch, are especially important, said Gold.
“We need these nights more than ever before,” he said. “We need these nights to forget that the world hates us, which also is perception, not reality…. The world doesn’t really hate us – there’s far too many people who do hate us, but the world as a whole?
“I was talking to my friend in Israel – I’m writing a TV series in Israel that we’re going to film there, hopefully in the spring – and he was saying he just went to Greece. All you see on social media is they hate the Israelis, [but] everyone we met said, ‘Oh, you’re Israeli? Wow, welcome,’ and gave us hugs.”
That being said, Gold acknowledged we’re living in a frightening time and antisemitism is prevalent.
“But it’s not omnipresent, it’s not everywhere,” he said. “It’s groups of people. There have always been groups of people who hate us, and I always say to Jews, don’t take it so personally. Usually, those groups hate other groups. It’s not just us that people hate. Racism doesn’t start and end with us, but, for some reason, we seem to be the favourite scapegoat of humanity and a lot of it is on us. And, again, I’m not dismissing antisemitism – it is so real.”
Referencing the Jewish man in Montreal who was beaten in front of his children, calling it “disgusting,” Gold said, “It’s really a constant, whether it’s Colorado or DC or wherever you look, there’s another attack, so that’s why we have to be strong and vigilant and stay safe, but also we can’t live our life through the prism of everybody hates us and everything’s terrible. The truth is, a lot of people have always hated us, and whether it’s, ‘they are drinking the blood of Christian children’ to ‘they’re starving Palestinian children,’ they’re blood libels. This is the latest iteration of a blood libel that gives the haters an excuse to hate.”
Gold pointed to inaccurate reporting by the media, including the New York Times’s use on its cover of a photo of a sick, emaciated child in Gaza, wrongly claiming the child was starving.
“It turns out it’s a genetic disease that he has,” said Gold, “and so many of the pictures have been falsified and misrepresented as starvation, when they are children with diseases, which is tragic in its own right, but to blame Israel … and to put that on the cover of the New York Times, that incites and emboldens the haters to hate us and attack us even more. So, it’s all based on lies. The only truth is that there is a war that Israel didn’t start or want and must fight to the end or there’ll be Oct. 7 every day until the last Jew standing. So, we shouldn’t apologize for defending ourselves ever again – but we do have to clarify all the mistruths out there that are representing the Jewish state, and thereby the Jewish people, in the worst light.”
After Oct. 7, Gold needed to step back from work. “For the first few weeks, I found no humour, I was in a state of shock and traumatized, like everybody,” he said. “I actually canceled gigs, I couldn’t do them.”
But one gig he wasn’t allowed to cancel was emceeing a Jewish Federation of Los Angeles event that happened in the shadow of Oct. 7.
“Steven Singer from the Federation in LA said, ‘No, no, we’re insisting that you do it, and that you do open with 10 minutes of comedy in a respectful way. We really need this and … even though we’re still mourning, we have to start healing…. It was the first time I went back on stage, almost a month in,” said Gold.
The terror attacks and the hostages are continually on his mind, he said, but he must pull himself back from those thoughts.
Fortunate to have had an “average to normal childhood,” with parents who “are amazing and brought us up in a loving, happy house … my comedy doesn’t come from pain,” he said. “And now, I’m in more pain emotionally than I’ve ever been with everything going on, but I push it away because, if I delve in too much for too long, I won’t be able to come out of it, I won’t be able to be the funny guy.
“And it’s not just my responsibility,” he said. “In life, I’m fulfilling my purpose by being light and fun and funny, and bringing that to other people, so I can’t get too into it because my rage for what happened and what’s happening and how the world is denying or excusing Oct. 7, the way the world’s demanding the end to the existence of our ancestral homeland – it’s so infuriating and so depressing. If I focus and harp on it too much, I won’t be able to deliver the goods.”
And delivering the goods is something he is compelled to do, by his very nature. When COVID-19 hit and the forecast was that it would last only a few weeks, Gold said his first thought was that he’d catch up on every TV streaming service, binge on shows he’d never been able to watch with four kids and a job that is pretty much 24/7. But, by Day 2 of the pandemic, he was doing a daily show on Instagram Live called My Funny Quarantine.
“Every day at 6:13, which is the number of mitzvahs in the Torah, I would do an 18-minute show, which is also, again, significant, 18 is chai [life],” he said. Most of Gold’s Instagram followers are Jewish, so the show had a lot of Jewish themes, though the guests were wide-ranging, including comedians from Jim Gaffigan to Bill Burr to Tiffany Haddish, Jay Leno and Michael Serra.
Gold’s friend, screenwriter and director Jeremy Garelick, loved My Funny Quarantine and suggested Gold do a Jewish dating show every Saturday night.
The Bachor (bachor is Hebrew for young man, guy) ran for a couple of years. “I made two shidduchim [matches],” said Gold.
“It was a way for people to connect, and no one was doing anything, no one could go anywhere, and I had so many people watching live,” he said.
Gold also did Zoom stand-up shows and outdoor performances during the pandemic. More recently, he worked on the film The Badchan, spending a month in Israel for it. He’s been to Israel four times in the last two years, he said, doing shows.
“Badchan is like a wedding jester,” Gold explained. The film was written by Shuli Rand and Gidi Dar, who did the 2004 film Ushpizin (Guests) together.
“To me, every decade has a seminal cultural Jewish film, like Yentl or Fiddler or The Chosen or their Ushpizin,” said Gold. “And I think this is going to be that film of this decade. It’s going to come out in November, hopefully.”
Gold is currently developing a new hour-long comedy special, which will come out sometime near the end of next year perhaps.
“It’s really exciting,” said Gold, “because Chris Rock, one of my comedy mentors, he said every special should be like a thesis and I have the thesis for this one, and I already have been closing for 20 minutes with this thesis. And so, now I’m just building it out, and I think it’s going to be very fun and relatable, because I’m getting more personal in my comedy.”
He said, “The more you reveal, the more they relate.”
“Little arguments with the wife, little stories that happen, when you share them, I have not just men but women coming over to me going, oh my God, are you in my house? How do you know this happens? I’m like, because it happens to me…. The comedian’s job is to relate and connect, to have this shared experience where you’re taking observations about human behaviour … and laughing about it.”
As for Gold’s performance here on Sept. 11, it represents more than just a good many laughs.
“I think everyone should come out,” he said. “I think we all need nights like this event, and supporting your local community and your local Federation, that’s one of the best ways to help us all get through these tough, insane times where the world feels upside down. I’ll try to turn the world right side up for even just a little bit, even just for one night.”
Adam Korbin, regional president, Metro Vancouver, for BGU Canada, left, with Jacqui and Yaron Vital, who visited Vancouver last month. On July 21, they shared the story of the murder of their daughter, Adi Vital-Kaploun, by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. (photo from BGU BC & Alberta)
One family’s tragic experiences during the Oct. 7 terror attacks were shared in an intimate, emotional gathering in a private Vancouver home recently.
Yaron and Jacqui Vital shared the story of the murder of their daughter Adi Vital-Kaploun. Jacqui, an Ottawa native who has lived in Israel for 50 years, and her husband, Yaron, who survived the invasion of Kibbutz Holit, told their stories July 21.
The evening was convened by Ben-Gurion University Canada. Adi studied at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at BGU’s Sde Boker campus and the university has set up a special scholarship fund in her memory.
For the Simchat Torah holiday in 2023, Yaron Vital joined daughter Adi and her partner, Adani, and their two kids, 4-year-old Negev and 4-month-old Eshel, at their home on Kibbutz Holit. They were joined by another daughter, Ayala, and her family, who live in another kibbutz in the Gaza Envelope area. For the first time since the COVID pandemic, Jacqui was visiting family in Ottawa and watched the confusing news from afar, with mounting alarm.
“We had a nice day on Friday,” Yaron recalled. “Adani and Adi made a nice supper, we played with the kids a little bit and then Ayala left and went back to the kibbutz.”
Because Adi was nursing the baby and would be up in the night, she suggested her father sleep in the nearby guest house.
“It’s an apartment that nobody uses most of the year and it doesn’t seem in such good shape, but it’s a place to sleep,” he said. “In the end, this apartment saved my life.”
At 6:29 a.m., he woke up to “a noise like thunder” and a changed world.
The sky was so bright from rockets that his eyes were seared and he could see the lights for days when he shut his eyes.
Yaron returned to the safe room in the guest house and called Adi, who told him to stay where he was. Adani had left the kibbutz earlier and, when the attacks began, Adi texted him not to return.
Yaron was in the army for 24 years, and served in a special unit in charge of the security along that very border. While the density of rockets overhead was unprecedented, he soon realized how different the scenario was from anything he, or the country, had seen before. Looking out a window, he saw terrorists running throughout the kibbutz. He heard screaming and shooting. From experience, he expected the military torespond almost instantaneously. He had no idea that there were more than 3,000 terrorists already in the country and that Holit was far from the only kibbutz under attack.
The safe room door in the guest house did not have a lock – they are created to protect from rockets and missiles, not from on-the-ground terrorist invasions – and so Yaron rigged up a rope to create a makeshift lock.
The rampaging terrorists skipped the guest house and Yaron had no idea why. Later, in piecing together some of the disparate threads from the day, it emerged that the invaders had detailed maps of the various kibbutzim, clearly based on intelligence from Gazans who had worked at or visited the border-adjacent communities – the maps indicated who lived where, which homes had dogs, where jewelry was kept. Presumably, the terrorists knew the guest house was usually vacant and so didn’t waste their time kicking in the door.
At 12:30 p.m. – six hours after the horrors began – Yaron received a text message from Adi.
“They’re breaking into my house,” she wrote.
“That was the last time she sent me a message,” Yaron said. “I tried to call her back after 10 minutes. She didn’t answer. I heard some shooting from her direction.”
He waited in silence all afternoon. After 11 hours, Yaron heard people in the house. He wouldn’t open the door, knowing it could be a trap. They hollered to see if anyone was in the building.
“I didn’t answer until they came close to the door of the safe room,” he recalled. “They said, ‘Is somebody inside? Is somebody here?’ It seemed like a Hebrew accent. I decided I couldn’t take it anymore, to tell you the truth, so I decided I’m going to answer them.”
Once he was freed, he went with the soldiers to Adi’s house across the street.
“They tried to open the door and it was locked, so I had a feeling maybe there was a chance,” he said. “The commander kicked the door, they jumped inside, disappeared for a few seconds and then they came to me and said, ‘Listen, we saw a dead body in the kitchen.’ When they said that, I lost my … I almost fell down. But, they said right away, ‘Don’t worry, it’s a man.’”
It was evident almost immediately that the body was that of a terrorist. There was no sign of the kids and, while the safe room was a shamble, there was no sign of Adi either. There were hundreds of bullet casings on the floor of the living room.
“I called Adani and I told him that there is nobody in the house. Don’t worry, she’s hiding someplace,” he recalled Adani telling him.
Dead dogs were scattered throughout the kibbutz. Doors to most of the houses were open and Yaron could see bodies inside. Late in the day, he got in his severely damaged car and began to drive home to Jerusalem. On the way, he received news that his grandchildren were safe and comparatively healthy.
Al Jazeera was on site with the terrorists and had footage of the two boys being abducted. Negev had been shot in the foot and a terrorist was bandaging his wound while another terrorist had Eshel on his shoulders and rocked him in a carriage.
In a scene broadcast on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program on Monday, Oct. 9, the terrorists set the boys free right around the Gaza border. The footage showed Negev and Eshel returning with a woman toward the kibbutz. The Vitals believe this was a propaganda move to show the humanity of the terrorists, who were depicted as kindly releasing a mother and her (presumed) children. Around midnight, Adani was reunited with his sons.
After four days battling the terrorists, Holit was finally secured and a special unit came to the kibbutz and started to clear the bodies.
“One of the soldiers bent down and suddenly saw a hand sticking out from under the sofa,” Yaron said. They took a picture of the hand with a wedding ring and that is how the family learned that Adi had not been kidnapped but killed.
It would turn out that she had courageously fended off the terrorists for some time with the gun Adani had in the house – killing one of the terrorists, the body the soldiers discovered in the home. Eventually, though, she was murdered in front of her children. The kids were taken by the terrorists and handed over to a neighbour, who was the woman pictured on CNN.
Jacqui spoke of the unbearable anxiety of not knowing the fate of her daughter.
“I only had three days of not knowing where she was and I couldn’t touch my neck because I was so tense just thinking about what they might be doing to her,” she said. “And there are still 50 families that can’t touch their neck.”
Of their late daughter, Jacqui said: “We know where she is, she’s in a safe place.”
This sentiment has caused some controversy in Israel. On the 10th day after Oct. 7, Adani was on TV saying he was relieved that Adi had been murdered and not kidnapped because, he assumed, death was the preferable alternative. At the time, probably no one imagined that dozens of hostages would still be in captivity in Gaza almost 700 days later.
According to David Berson, executive director of Ben-Gurion University Canada, British Columbia and Alberta, 118 people from the Ben-Gurion University community have been killed on or since Oct. 7, most of them during the 10/7 terror attacks and others in the ensuing war. These include faculty, students and staff.
