On March 3, many stories of heroism were shared at the weekly rally for Israeli hostages, of whom 13 are women, still being held by Hamas. The gathering marked International Women\u2019s Day, which takes place on March 8. <\/i>(photo by Pat Johnson)<\/i><\/p>\n
On Oct. 7, Amit Mann, a 22-year-old paramedic, spent six hours treating the wounded and dying in a dental clinic on Kibbutz Be\u2019eri.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSix hours during which she did not stop treating the wounded, six hours during which she did not lose hope,\u201d recounted Ruth Jankelowitz at the weekly rally for Israeli hostages March 3. \u201cAmit Mann, a Magen David Adom paramedic, treated the wounded at Kibbutz Be\u2019eri with her dedication and heroism with the sounds of gunfire all around her and the threatening voices of the murderers getting closer. Together with a nurse and a dentist \u2026 she tried to do everything to save everybody as she had done since she was 13, until the bullets of the vile terrorists hit her, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Mann\u2019s tragic story of heroism was one of numerous shared at the gathering Sunday, marking International Women\u2019s Day, March 8, where speakers called for the release of all the hostages, including 13 women still being held.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ofra Sixto, owner of Ofra\u2019s Kitchen restaurant, whose pro-Israel activism in recent months has attracted threats and intimidation, led a moment of silence for female victims of Oct. 7.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world is angry when women are being raped, abused, disrespected and brutally murdered by men \u2013 unless they are Jewish women,\u201d she said. \u201cThen the world is silent, complacent and, at the time, had the audacity to question the acts.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat gets me the most is the young and old women that support Hamas, knowing what they know of how they treat women in general and our women in particular,\u201d Sixto said. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond me.\u201d<\/p>\n Masha Kleiner, an Israeli-Canadian who co-founded NOAH, Nonviolent Opposition Against Hate, said that, for every Jew, \u201cOct. 7 is absolutely personal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEach and every single one of us knows it could have been me who was tortured and kidnapped and killed,\u201d she said. \u201cI am selfishly lucky that nobody I personally know was killed or kidnapped on Oct. 7, but many of our tribe have been, so this is a personal loss for every one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Jews worldwide are grieving the loss of life, she said, but Jews lost something else that day and in the months since, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne other thing that we are all grieving in the post-Oct. 7 world is our illusions, the illusion that the world around us is safe and sane and friendly,\u201d she said. \u201cWe grieve, and this grief can be lonely because some people that we considered friends chose to keep their distance and some of them turned their backs on us. But, while this happens, we become so much closer to the people who do have the moral clarity and the courage to stand with us.\u201d<\/p>\n Mirit Murad \u2013 an Israeli who came to Vancouver two decades ago and has two nieces, Gal Klein and Ofek Elias, serving as reservists since the onset of the war \u2013 urged people to take time on International Women\u2019s Day to honour and celebrate Israeli women, both civilians and soldiers.<\/p>\n \u201cThese women are demonstrating unparalleled strength, resilience, resourcefulness, bravery, intellect and protective instincts,\u201d she said. \u201cThey embody the very essence of courage, never hesitating to leap into action or shield others from harm.\u201d<\/p>\n The week\u2019s rally took place at Jack Poole Plaza, rather than the usual location at the Vancouver Art Gallery because that space was provided to organizers of Vancouver\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day event.<\/p>\n That event\u2019s theme was Palestinian women and featured images of \u201cactivists\u201d including Fatima Bernawi, Ahed Tamimi and others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bernawi served a decade in Israeli prisons after planting a bomb in a Jerusalem movie theatre in 1967, which was discovered before detonation. Tamimi is something of a social media star, a young woman who came to prominence as a 16-year-old when a video of her assaulting an Israeli soldier in 2017 went viral. After the Oct. 7 attacks, Tamimi wrote on social media: \u201cWe will slaughter\u00a0you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke, we will drink your blood and eat your skulls.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese women are arbiters of Palestinian resistance who advocated for the rights and freedoms of Palestinian people and are continuing to do so every day,\u201d organizers of the Vancouver IWD event said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational Women\u2019s Day belongs to everyone, everywhere,\u201d said Daphna Kedem, organizer of the weekly vigils. \u201cWhere are you, women\u2019s organizations? Believe Israeli women. Release our women.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli women among the hostages still being held by Hamas<\/b><\/p>\n Liri Albag, soldier, 18 On March 3, many stories of heroism were shared at the weekly rally for Israeli hostages, of whom 13 are women, still being held by Hamas. The gathering marked International Women\u2019s Day, which takes place on March 8. (photo by Pat Johnson) On Oct. 7, Amit Mann, a 22-year-old paramedic, spent six hours treating the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23018,22700,23021,23017,23020,23022,19757,23019,1774,1742,3021],"class_list":["post-43676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-amit-mann","tag-hostages","tag-international-womens-day","tag-israel-hamas-war-oct-7","tag-masha-kleiner","tag-mirit-murad","tag-ofra-sixto","tag-ruth-jankelowitz","tag-terrorism","tag-vancouver","tag-women"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNoa Argamani, student, 26
\nKarina Ariev, soldier, 19
\nAgam Berger, soldier, 19
\nShiri Bibas, 32, kidnapped with husband and two children
\nAmit Esther Buskila, fashion stylist, 28
\nCarmel Gat, occupational therapist, 39
\nDaniella Gilboa, soldier, 19
\nRomi Gonen, dancer, choreographer, medic, 23
\nNaama Levy, soldier, 19
\nDoron Steinbrecher, veterinary nurse, 30
\nArbel Yehoud, astronomy guide, 28
\nEden Yerushalmi, bartender, 24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"