What's the Story?
Every graphic holds a story, conveying states of mind stemming from the events we're experiencing
Kidsrael
On yet another night when thoughts about our kidnapped children and their aching families wouldn’t allow any sleep, Israel’s outline was created, going through the 32 kids we back then knew were abducted.
The result tried to express what words could not stress enough: Our nation won’t be whole again until they are all back in their homes.
Positive psychology believes that when our ability to change something is limited, what we can do is 'direct our energy' and thoughts toward believing the change we're hoping for will indeed occur.
The helplessness felt in the face of the unbearable thought of young children in Hamas captivity led to this very creation: there came a realization, that what I could do, to begin with, was create the reality I wished for on paper, and by that join the national prayers for everyone's safe return.
Hurt Me Not (?)
“Hurt me, hurt me not” expresses the banality of evil and its overwhelming randomness. It encapsulates the unbearable realization that this level of evil could strike any one of us; that our safety is left to chance. That even those as young and beautiful as fresh flowers could be mercilessly torn apart; unprotected. Echoing the well-known ‘love me, love me not’ ritual, it implies how twisted everything has become; where protective barriers collapse, and youth innocence is brutally ruined.
The name of this graphic design is actually the only one that is not directly translated from Hebrew to English. In Hebrew it is named Noomi Perach, that is, Sleep, Flower (as a verb in the imperative form). It echoes a famous song by the Israeli musician Yehuda Poliker, famous for his Holocaust-driven songs.
Originally, his song Perach (flower) was written to express the agony and absurdity involved in brutally hurting innocent children - an atrocity that we believed belonged to a different era. An era during which humanity witnessed the destruction of fragile flowers; as tender as children, as sprouts about to blossom.
This is exactly what has happened to all those girls and women - in the Kibbutzim, at the Nova party.
Only that the year is 2023.
שם, בעפר ותכלת / חלקת שלום ישנה"
נומי פרח, נומי / נומי ילדה קטנה
את החיים לקחו לך / הו, מלחמות קדושות
מלאכים בכו לך / בעיניים יבשות
את חיוכך, תינוקת / קברו באדמה
"איך צומח שקט / מתוך המהומה
יהודה פוליקר-
State of Heart
‘State of Heart’ expresses our nation’s state of mind (and heart). As we unite in solidarity, we strive to remain strong despite inevitable aching cracks.
Our deal with the Devil was clear: all innocent Israeli women and children were to be released in the first hostage-terrorist exchange rounds. On November 30, following the release of almost all children and part of the women held hostage, our nation’s eyes were all anxiously fixed on seeing whether the brothers Ariel (4) and Kfir (11) Bibas, along with their mother Shiri, would return back home.
The horror in the eyes of the red-heads’ mom’s eyes as they were brutally kidnapped from their home on October 7 has become one of the most iconic symbols of our tragedy. We all joined the prayers for their safe return, holding on to the thread of hope they would, as promised.
But the Devil could care less about deals and promises. Using the most vicious psychological terrorism, Hamas is still keeping the Bibas family hostage. Yarden, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir are held in unknown conditions, and our hearts are orange and aching with their entire family.
UNbelievable
60 days. The United Nations’ International Women’s Organization took two full months to condemn the awfully violent sexual harassment committed against Israeli women by Hamas terrorists. Israeli women’s testimonies are doubted and are deprived of the most basic and empathic validation, which is essential to their healing.
The double standard exhibited by the UN and the absurd accusations of “fake news” despite concrete unequivocal evidence is just UNbelieveable. As far as Jewish Israeli women are concerned, many in the international community choose not to see, choose not to hear, and most severe of all -
choose not to speak.
But we will raise our voices and will shout out for those who are deprived of their basic right to speak and be heard.
State of Emergency
‘State of Emergency’ expresses exactly this: our state is given at a severe emergency state. So much so, that an innocent civilian attempting to stop a vicious terrorist attack was shot dead, mistakenly taken for a terrorist himself.
‘State of Emergency’ was created on December 1st, in memory of Yuval Doron Castleman, who bravely neutralized two vicious terrorists who attacked innocent civilians in Jerusalem. Sacrificing his own life, he prevented much more devastating results.
The vagueness surrounding the investigation looking into the circumstances of Yuval’s death, as well as the civilian arming operation giving weapons to men and women who feel insecure in their own country, emphasizes exactly this:
we are in a State of political, social, and security Emergency.
Feminisemite
It seems that in 2023, being an antisemite overcomes being a feminist. While international women’s organizations have been expressing repeated worries regarding the humanitarian situation of women in Gaza (and rightly so), they remained in deafening silence as far as taking any stand concerning Hamas’ sexual violation of Israeli women was concerned.
It was only after two full months of urging the appreciation of the unquestionable evidence presented, that the UN Women's Organization helped itself to release a laconic announcement condemning the October 7 violence against Israeli women.
The Western world's double standard clarified what years of formal Holocaust education at school were not truly able to consolidate. Now, I can finally understand how the world stood still.
The selective inability to condemn gender-based violence by women themselves has only one name: antisemitism.
As pretentious feminists, such hypocritical women might as well be called, feminisemites.
SheIsrael
SheIsrael is actually what gave rise to this initiative.
When I shared this graphic on my social media profiles, I was amazed by the extent of identification it enabled and by the way it was reacted to by many women - including women I don't know in person. SheIsrael is strength and vulnerability - just like us, Israeli women.
Originally, it was created
combining two ideas: On the one hand, it expresses how our resilience as a country and as a people is equally dependent on the existence of powerful women - both at the homefront and within our homes. On the other hand, SheIsrael stands against the international community’s turning a blind eye, especially women’s global organizations, who abstain from condemning the violence committed against Israeli women.
The beautiful thing about art is, that sharing SheIsrael on socials made different women relate to it in different ways: some saw it as a woman trying to protect herself, and others saw a woman protecting her own country. One woman even identified the word lintzor (to preserve) formed out of the drawing's lines, and others tattooed it on themselves.
Powerful Israeli femininity per excellence.