Spring in Wartime Israel, 4: Beyond the Limits of Language, 2 May 2024

July 07, 2024  •  Leave a Comment

          Months ago, when this visit was in its planning phase, Daniela told me that she wanted to take HL and me to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.  It is one of D.’s favorite places in the city.  And I am always ready for a cultural excursion.  If I were the sole member of my species, I would have to choose museums as my natural habitat.  That first sunny Thursday afternoon was the one that Daniela, HL and I chose for meeting friends from Jerusalem and exploring the Art Museum together.

       Along the way, I stopped in a bank lobby in order to obtain a small amount of Israeli currency.  On the ATM screen was the familiar yet anguished demand for the return of those kidnapped and still captive in Gaza: Bring Them Home. 

       A further few blocks’ walk brought us to the extensive museum complex.  There we paused, immobilized by horror.  Since October, the museum’s plaza has been Hostage Square, in Hebrew, Kikar ha-Hatufim.  The world can recognize the victims’ weeping friends and relatives, the spontaneous assemblages, artworks, signs, and photographs of the captives that fill the plaza.  These have been featured in the media during the past few months, long enough to render them stale news. 

       People looking online spare the pictures a glance, whether of glee or sympathy, before turning to the next digital distraction.  It is quite different to be there, to be inside Hostage Square, the epicenter of the heartbreak that continues to disrupt the nation’s pulse.

         It has become common for those who receive honors or feel great joy to act so overwhelmed that they cannot articulate their gratitude.  I believe that this specious verbal inadequacy originates in television talk shows.  It is as offensive as it is untrue. Both English and Hebrew have more than enough words, and no shortage of talented writers, singers and speakers, to describe the shock, grief, anger and pain that afflict Israelis today.  That said, the images in Hostage Square are even more eloquent than reams of rhetoric or even poetry.  Let me show you some of those that most affected me.

Reminders of the hostages’ plight can appear anywhere in Israel.

The hostages’ places at the Seder table remained empty at Passover.

The tunnel is a facsimile of those that Hamas dug under much of Gaza; the kidnappers retreated  into networks of such tunnels with many of the captives.

My rough translation of the Hebrew phrase in white letters is
The Eternity (Eternal One) of Israel will not lie.

 

 


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