“Han Gamalya Retreat,” January 18th-20th 2024
Victims of the atrocities of October 7th are trying every way possible to rehabilitate their lives. A few hundred of those that attended the Nova Festival, who were attacked by Hamas terrorists during the festival that occurred in Reim, gathered on Friday, January 19th and Saturday, January 20th, in the Negev Desert (Southern Israel), in Han Gamalya, to dance and celebrate again.
Until 5:00am, under the neon blue and pink lights, Eliran danced for the first time, who escaped terrorists by hiding in the forest for hours on October 7th. “It’s relieving, especially after what we went through. It happened at a music festival. So, to shake off this drama through music is exponentially rewarding. We’ll never stop dancing.”
* “We’ll never stop dancing”
A few hours of dancing to banish your anxiety between the palm trees and the hammocks in this slice of desert. In one corner, a Nova Festival flag is waving. “We started with retreats, without fights,” Chen, one of the festival organizers, says. “Slowly, we support them in the recovery process. It’s important to dance, in general, alone at home or at a party, and even more important for people that love to,” the organizers assured.
“I think it’s a win. We didn’t stop even a little bit.”
Daniel Sharabi, CEO of the organization, who both sponsored and was intimately involved in the organizing of the event, sits with friends outside a tent, some of which are playing music. Yoav and Gal approach. The first is a soldier who followed the drama of the Nova Festival while Gal, his girlfriend, was escaping the festival as he reported to his unit in Givati to go fight. This weekend, for both of them, is a tiny moment of getting back to how life was before. “It’s very emotional to hear the music and to dance. It’s like coming back full circle.”
“The terrorists did not win.”
“Since October 7th, celebrating had a negative connotation for me, but this weekend did me a lot of good,” Yoav adds, “and then to show that the terrorists didn’t win, that they couldn’t take our pride and our freedom. I tell my friends all the time that we only didn’t get to the end of the festival because they interrupted us.” And we have to rectify that with a huge, nationwide party immediately after all the hostages come home, and our friends from the festival.
“I wonder what would’ve happened if everything happened as planned?” he continues, “we tasted it this weekend. It’s one of the most beautiful ways to express our freedom.” Soon Yoav will pick up his weapon again, hoping to return and dance with his friends again as soon as possible.
Our organization, For the Survivors and the Wounded, was established by survivors and victims who proudly showed the will and real need to regain their strength and sanity! Our organization responds to all survivors who suspect that they need help for all their immediate needs from organizing legal counsel without fee or agenda, walking them through their lawful benefits as survivors, to putting them in touch with relevant public health professionals for fast and effective treatment.
The organization puts a ton of thought into the survivors’ real needs, conducting many interviews in Israeli and Global Media, and manages a recruitment and support arrangement from a number of organizations and wonderful people that donate and help us connect, strengthen, and care for our dear friends, who survived and fought, but we don’t stop fighting to brink against the complicated, bureaucratic system that doesn’t understand the condition and hardship of the victim.
Our organization takes an active part in funding management, organization, and more than a bit of social entrepreneurship on behalf of the survivors, like establishing a website and social media accounts to tell their stories from the Nova Festival, scream for the hostages, and remember the beauty and happiness of our friends dancing, who bloomed to a world of infinite love and endless dance, social retreats integrating physical and psychological treatment, concerts and unique parties put together for the survivors alone.
Our vision is to first see all our friends and all the hostages back home…
We won’t leave anyone behind.
Knowing how to give in a way that they’ll want to receive from friends who went through it and are dealing with it alone.
We aspire to get to each survivor and victim to help them rebuild their trust, and to be the right friends to stand with and fly high..
