“Brothers and sisters who have nothing to celebrate. Rutti, make sure the portable soccer goalposts are packed.”
Ir Ganim, Jerusalem, May 8 – A father of three from this southwestern neighborhood of the city acknowledged today that his plans for Israel’s Independence Day have shifted this year to acknowledge the ongoing torment and unclear fate of hundreds of people kidnapped to the Gaza Strip on October 7: in between gorging himself on meat skewers, downing several beers, kicking a soccer ball around, and complaining that everyone else at the park makes it too crowded, he will find time to think of those captives going through hell in Gaza.
“It’s going to be different,” Ronen Gadassi assured his family as he went through his packing checklist to prepare for this coming Tuesday. “We can’t just do the same thing as every other year. We have people suffering right now. Yuval, how many minute steaks are in the freezer? Beef hot dogs? Tortillas? Rimonn, how many burgers do you expect to eat?”
“We’re going to have to leave the house at an obscenely hour of the morning,” he warned his family, in a speech that he delivers around this time each year. “There are only a handful of legal parking spots in the area of Gan Sacher. We can’t hope to snag one by just showing up whenever. We need to be strategic about it. We’re going to get to the parking cutout on the northbound side of Ben-Tzvi Boulevard, across from that end of the park, at four in the morning, and we’ll pull into the first spot there that empties.”
“While we’re sitting there,” he added, as an afterthought, “we can say a silent prayer for our brothers and sisters who are hostages and have nothing to celebrate right now. Rutti, please make sure the portable soccer goalposts are packed in the trunk. Yes, now. I don’t want to be running around Monday night because we forgot something. We need to to go sleep early Monday night so we can get up at four on Tuesday.”
Israel marks Independence Day on the fifth of the month of Iyyar, the date on the Jewish calendar on which the nascent country proclaimed its statehood in 1948. Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers occurs on the day before that, inaugurated each year on the evening leading into the fourth of Iyyar. Because the fourth this year coincides with Saturday night and Sunday, the preparations would of necessity require violations of the Jewish Sabbath, which would violate Israel’s longstanding policy for nonessential government functions. When that happens, the observance shifts away from the weekend. This year, that involves postponement of both days by one, to Monday and Tuesday.
Gadassi spent Wednesday evening coordinating plans via WhatsApp for the barbecue, music, drinks, and picnic furniture with two buddies from the neighborhood and an old army comrade, almost remembering at four separate times to mention the hostages.
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