Yaniv Hegyi:'My identity is in the Kibbutz'

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00living in another place.

00:02It's not like moving from one city to another.

00:05I am from Kibbutz Beri.

00:07It's something really, really, really strong in my soul.

00:10But from the other hand, how can I go back?

00:13How can I go back into a place where I know

00:17that the Palestinians in Gaza,

00:20they have one goal.

00:22They want to kill me.

00:24That I understand.

00:26So it seems not to be responsible to go back.

00:29So I am torn between these two choices.

00:33And I postponed the decision for maybe two years

00:37in order to see what's going on

00:39and what would happen.

00:41So you postponed your decision.

00:45I'm sure you were apprehending this anniversary date.

00:49How has it gone today?

00:52So in the beginning of the day,

00:55I woke up really early.

00:57At 6.30, they started shooting us again

00:59because the 7th of October started at 6.30 a.m.

01:04So today for the anniversary,

01:06the people from Gaza shooted us again at 6.30 a.m.

01:10in order to remind us that we are still in war

01:13and to keep on the terror.

01:15This is how the day began.

01:18I can say that I'm very tense.

01:21Everything is tense.

01:23So I'm not in my house.

01:25I don't know where will I go back,

01:27if I will go back.

01:29The war is still on.

01:31And this tense has a ripple effect.

01:35So it affects my relationships inside the family.

01:39And it affects the relationship in the community.

01:42And it affects how I go and drive on the road.

01:47It affects everything.

01:49So everything is tense.

01:51We are at war.

01:53It is unbelievable that we are one year at war.

01:57It's a horrible situation.

01:59And today was horrible as well.

02:02But at least we were together,

02:04the community, the family,

02:06and we commemorate everything together.

02:09And we named all the 101 people

02:13that were murdered one by one.

02:15And we remember them.

02:17And we called for returning of the hostages.

02:20And these actions, where we do actions,

02:22and when we do something,

02:24so we are not helpless.

02:26And when we are not helpless,

02:28we feel strong,

02:30and we feel that we are doing something.

02:32Yeah, doing something.

02:34You, Yaniv Hayiv,

02:36started this organization,

02:41710memorial.org.

02:43You're compiling messages from the day.

02:48You talked about your son's PTSD.

02:50What are you subjecting yourself to every single day

02:53when you look at these messages of panic,

02:56these messages of grief?

02:59So first of all,

03:01it's really weird to say,

03:03but I don't go inside.

03:05I don't read the messages,

03:06because when I read the messages,

03:08my telephone is a view to what happened

03:11on 7th of October.

03:13When I read the messages,

03:14I go back to being in my safe room

03:18in Be'eri on 7th of October,

03:20when all the terrorists were roaming in the kibbutz.

03:23And I get the shivers now,

03:25even just from talking about it.

03:27So I don't read it,

03:29but I collect it.

03:30And in order to understand this project,

03:32you need to understand what was the WhatsApp for us

03:34on October 7th.

03:36The WhatsApp, the cell phone,

03:38was our only window out of the safe room.

03:41And everything was on WhatsApp,

03:43and everybody was on WhatsApp.

03:45So for example,

03:46that we saw in the news,

03:48just like before I came now,

03:50five minutes ago.

03:51So he said on WhatsApp,

03:53the terrorists are outside my house.

03:56And then he said,

03:57the terrorists went into my house.

03:59And then he says,

04:00which is a prayer.

04:03And then that's it.

04:04They took him to Gaza.

04:06So everything was on WhatsApp.

04:08And when I look at the WhatsApp messages,

04:10it's exactly what happened on that day.

04:12Because for example,

04:14I saw from my window,

04:16the house of my neighbors,

04:18as it's burning.

04:20And I took the picture,

04:22and I sent it in the WhatsApp group of the neighborhood.

04:25And then the neighbors,

04:27the four families that were in that house,

04:30they said,

04:31okay, tell me when I can run out of the house,

04:34when it's safe to go,

04:36because the terrorists are not outside.

04:38And we saw all the neighbors,

04:40we looked,

04:41and we said,

04:42okay, now,

04:43now, now, now,

04:44because everything is set to fire.

04:46And then one family went away.

04:48And another family called me by WhatsApp,

04:51and he said,

04:52I want to come to your house,

04:53a mother with three children.

04:55And this mother and three children,

04:57they went out their house.

04:59They saw terrorists from the right hand side,

05:01and then they ran left.

05:02They ran, ran, ran, ran to my shelter.

05:05They were under fire.

05:07Luckily,

05:08they could go into my house.

05:12And they were rescued.

05:14So everything,

05:15everything was on WhatsApp.

05:17And I think that that's the first event in the human history

05:21that was documented in real time,

05:24but by everybody that participated in this event.

05:28So I want to collect everything from all the Western Negev,

05:32from the kibbutzim,

05:33from the Moshavib,

05:34from the cities,

05:35from the people in Israel,

05:37in the center,

05:38my family that were in the center.

05:40We talked on WhatsApp from Jews around the world

05:43and my friends all around the world.

05:45They talked to me on 7th of October.

05:47They are a part of the story.

05:49It's a huge project,

05:51and I want to collect everything.

05:53And then to make out of it a virtual museum

05:56that people from all around the world can see.

05:59And then maybe a teacher from France

06:02can go into the virtual museum,

06:04and he can see a teacher from the Gaza Strip,

06:08from Israel.

06:09And he can see what happened to this teacher on this day

06:13and understand,

06:14were the teachers talking to one another?

06:17Did this teacher talk to his pupils?

06:20What did he say to the pupils?

06:22How did he give him forces?

06:24It can be an endless potential.

06:27Endless potential.

06:28Yaniv Yegi, back in the spring,

06:31you spoke with French newspaper Le Monde,

06:35and you said, quote,

06:36Generations of Palestinians have been raised to hate us.

06:39Those who believe that money and food would change everything,

06:42well, they too are naive.

06:45Is peace impossible?

06:47I will tell you.

06:49Before 7th of October,

06:51I was really, really left-wing.

06:53I promoted peace.

06:54I had, for example,

06:56I did a project that in Beirut,

06:59in the kibbutz,

07:00we will raise pigeons, carry pigeons,

07:02and in Gaza, in the zoo,

07:05we will exchange pigeons with kids that are writing notes.

07:10Afterwards, I tried to do a peace project

07:13that artists from Israel and from Gaza

07:16will create together

07:19because pain is universal.

07:21And I'm very, very left-wing in my sense.

07:26And then on October 7th,

07:28I understood how naive was I

07:31when I saw the terrorist in the eye,

07:33when I saw what they did to us.

07:35I understood that they were raised to hate us.

07:40They don't see in us any humanity.

07:44Their number one goal is to kill us.

07:47This is what I understood.

07:49So now I think, okay,

07:51first of all, if I believed before

07:55that it's our fault maybe,

07:58and if we end the occupation,

07:59everything will be okay,

08:01and if we just get food and education and work,

08:06everything will be okay.

08:08Now I understand that I was naive.

08:10In order for things to be better,

08:12I think the generations need to pass

08:15and education from both sides

08:18need to be education for peace

08:21and to see on the other side

08:23as human beings, as people.

08:27We are the same people.

08:28We hurt the same.

08:30And then maybe in 20, 30, 40 years,

08:32something will change.

08:34Now, at this point,

08:36I think that it's a little bit too late

08:38for thinking about peace.

08:40I think we need separation.

08:42I think we need distance from each other.

08:46We're not good neighbors.

08:48We need to be separated.

08:50That's for sure.

08:52Yanniv Yegdi, I want to thank you so much

08:54for joining us on this first anniversary

08:56of October 7th.

08:58Thank you very much for having me.

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