Life happens on two tracks for every individual who has lost a loved one to war and terrorism throughout Israel’s history. Life itself and the parallel track, pause. Where absence is always present. On Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day, personal and collective memories converge. Pause. Intensified collective absence in the last 2-1/2 years?

Idle conversation. A woman at the pool tells me her brother fell, over 50 years ago. Now, she feels collective commemoration relates to loss since October 7. Displacing her pain. Diminishing it on its national day. It was the morning of the Eve of Yom Hazikaron, anticipating the evening siren and ceremonies, I would think of her loss.

I attended the 21st Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Service in Tel Aviv. Location was disclosed 24 hours in advance to those registered. If you registered, you understood. If you ever attended the ceremony in the park earlier this decade, when you didn’t need to register, you were greeted by objectors’ spitting, name-calling, cursing, and worse. Objection to Israeli-Palestinian commitment to reconciliation more sacred than commemorating fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism?

Closure prevents West Bank Palestinian attendance. Their bereavement included with video clips. Video clips from Gaza. Israeli........

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