Day 38 (Monday)

Since I wrote last week, I have spent too many of my waking hours reading summaries, perspectives, analyses, of the situation in Israel and around the world, especially in England. I have tried to watch fewer videos, and to listen to fewer first- and second-hand accounts, of unimaginable atrocities, and of equally unimaginable acts of bravery. For news, I have depended almost exclusively on the three daily WhatsApp bulletins I mentioned last week, and another three or four of the on-the-hour radio bulletins through the day.

A Very Israeli Story

However, some narratives I have found it impossible to ignore. One of these is the story of Shura, which I see as a microcosm of the story of Israel.

The Army Rabbinate performs many functions, one of which is the preparation for burial of the bodies of fallen soldiers. This work is carried out at their headquarters in Shura Camp in the centre of the country, which has the capacity to store 200 bodies.

The police national forensic centre at Abu Kabir, in Tel Aviv, receives civilian terrorist victims, and conducts autopsies of other civilians. It is a small and understaffed facility.

By the end of October 7, it was already clear that Abu Kabir could not handle the civilian victims and that Shura would need to scale up its capacity by six or seven times. It also soon became clear that the identification of the bodies would be, in many, many cases, far more challenging than is usually the case, both because of the degree of butchery committed and because of the intense heat of the housefires (fed by fuel) in which many victims were burnt alive.

By the end of October 8, Shura had made itself ready for this unimaginable task. 25 empty shipping containers had been brought in. Each was equipped to be able to store the remains of 48 victims. A thousand reservists were called up, including army rabbis, dentists (to identify victims from their dental records) and pathologists. Hundreds of volunteers also stepped up.

Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the operation of locating bodies in the killing fields and sending them to Shura soon realised that identifying sometimes very small fragments of bone in the ash of a burnt house was a highly specialised job. So he phoned an acquaintance who is one of Israel’s leading archaeologists and asked him if he could bring a team of volunteer senior archaeologists to Otef Aza to carry out this work. They arrived the following day and immediately began working throughout the daylight hours.

Since then, in the Shura camp, one team of police investigators have been conducting basic police work: establishing cause of death, identifying murder weapons, taking fingerprints and DNA, recording any identifying characteristics such as tattoos or items such as jewellery. Following that, the remains go to a second team of crime scene investigators, who photograph and carry out other tests. At the end of this conveyor built, the remains pass through a CT scanner.

Even with all of this activity, it has proven heartbreakingly difficult to achieve identification in all cases. The criteria for positive identification are intentionally very demanding, to minimise the danger of misidentification. In cases where victims were incinerated, temperatures were sometimes high enough to distort the teeth beyond recognition and to make it impossible to detect DNA. Despite all of the technology, the huge databank available, the expertise and dedication of the teams working, it is still a fact that, even now, over five weeks since the atrocity, every day or two the identity of another person who died on October 7 is confirmed.

You can hear Dr Qanta Ahmed, a medical professional and a world expert on genocide who spent time at Shura, addressing the Haifa Technion here.

You can view a TV report , subtitled in English, on this sacred work, here. (I’m not sure this link will work for you. If so, this is a very moving and powerful report. If not, I apologise.)

We all wish with our entire being that this whole project were unnecessary. However, the project is essential, to honour the dead and to bring the mourners closure. In its humanity, in its multi-disciplinary co-operation, in its deeply religious commitment, in its cutting-edge technology, in its improvisation and speed of execution, and in its creative answer to a completely unforeseen challenge, Shura seems to me to encapsulate much of what is best in Israel.

The Day Israel Changed

I’ve also been struck, this week, by some of the dramatic changes that we have seen since October 7. It certainly makes sense to talk about Israel before and after Hashabbat Hashchora – the Black Shabbat.

For example, consider Gershon Baskin. He is arguably the Israeli most single-mindedly dedicated to furthering coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Israel and peace between Israel and the Palestinians throughout the last forty years. If the name means nothing to you, read his CV here.

Two weeks ago he wrote an open letter to the Deputy Foreign Minister in the Hamas government. (How surreal these civilised titles seem in the post-10/7 world!) You can read the letter here. In the last two weeks, I have reread it several times, because I cannot actually believe that I have read it correctly.

Almost as remarkable is an article by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times. While I wouldn’t endorse every word Friedman writes, his attitude to Israel seems to me to have changed. He now seems able to separate his feelings about the Government from his feelings about Israel. You can read the article here.

As well as these changes among media personalities, there are also changes at the personal, anonymous level. The world sometimes seems to have been stood on its head.

For instance, here’s a Gazan civilian, evacuating south along the Israel-provided humanitarian corridor, telling his Al-Jazeera interviewer that “Arab traitors are conspiring against us. Arabs, and only Arabs are betraying us. The Jews are kind with us.”

On the same subject: Israeli tanks and infantry in Gaza are deployed to protect Gazan civilian evacuees from Hamas fire.

Meanwhile, in Britain, police stood by, apparently oblivious, while Palestinian protestors made people selling poppies for Remembrance Day so uncomfortable that they eventually picked up their stand and moved to a different part of the railway station. However, two police officers were ready to pose, smiling, for a selfie with a child dressed as a Hamas terrorist. I have watched British police captured on video this week and seen nothing in their behaviour that I recognise.

Back in Israel, not only ultra-orthodox men but also over 200 ultra-orthodox women have applied to the IDF to enlist and assist in the war effort. The IDF is considering establishing a dedicated conscription program for the women. At the same time, 350 ultra-orthodox volunteer groups are among the thousands who have volunteered to help farmers harvest their crops.

That’s it for this week, except for the weather report. Winter may not have arrived in Israel, but it certainly has in Portugal, although the indoor hats may be more of a fashion statement than a reflection on the season.