https://www.reddit.com/r/Israel/comments/1igbg0b/kibbutzim_questions_from_a_diaspora_jew/
created by majesticjewnicorn on 02/02/2025 at 23:50 UTC
23 upvotes, 6 top-level comments (showing 6)
Shalom Israel sub. I hope everyone has had a safe and stable weekend. Before I begin, please know that I am constantly praying for you all, and since 7th October 2023 have lit Shabbat candles every single week (minus the ones when I've been hospitalised with an ongoing health issue), so please know that this Zionist Jew in the diaspora loves and cares about you all.
Now, to the main reason for my post here.
I'm just wondering why the kibbutzim affected by 7th October 2023 still remain exactly as they were when Hamas had finished their horrific acts and left the homes in such a state. Especially, for example, Nir Oz.
After watching the hostages being released in recent weeks (which has been a relief and I'm glad to see they are alive and stable), it's made me quite sad that they haven't got a home to return to, once discharged from the hospital. Whilst I can fully understand that there may be hostages too traumatised by what happened who may not wish to return, there may be hostages who do (such as Emily Damari today).
Given that many of the hostages have lost loved ones on October 7th 2023 and possibly afterwards, and lost 15 months of their own lives and freedoms, losing their homes seems another devastating blow. Hearing Thomas Hand (father of Emily Hand), he doesn't think they can return to their kibbutz for 5 years.
I'm just wondering why the Israeli government didn't rent out storage facilities to keep any salvageable possessions safe, then gut out the homes destroyed and rebuild or renovate, and then have them neutrally decorated to become livable. I know of course these things cost money, and lots of government funding is going towards the healthcare expenses of those injured both by terrorism and IDF soldiers, relocating Israelis from the north, and the military campaign... but, surely charitable donations and even kind volunteers to make this happen could've made it possible and allow people to return to their homes?
Apologies for the long post, and if my questions might be controversial. I also apologise if this has been answered by Israeli media, however this wouldn't be told to us in the diaspora. I just want to know how the government expects hostages taken from their homes to rebuild their lives if they don't even have a home to return back to.
Many thanks, and layla tov from me. Stay safe and stay the best people in the world.
Comment by AutoModerator at 02/02/2025 at 23:50 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
1: /message/compose/?to=/r/Israel
Comment by tomtforgot at 03/02/2025 at 00:25 UTC
26 upvotes, 0 direct replies
"storage facilities" like in USA and I guess UK ain't really a thing in Israel.
Destroyed homes are private property. Government doesn't have right to do anything with them.
Comment by Arielowitz at 03/02/2025 at 00:36 UTC
17 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The kibbutzim around Gaza have been hurt to a degree I cannot fathom (not only the hostages, also families whose loved ones were murdered). There are indeed plans to rebuild what was destroyed and it will take time. Everyone expects it to happen. The government is committed to it but will not talk about it so as not to mention its failure.
Comment by MxMirdan at 03/02/2025 at 04:48 UTC
14 upvotes, 0 direct replies
First of all, in many of the places that were attacked, many/most of the residents in those destroyed homes are dead. Some of the communities don’t want to move forward with decisions affecting communal property until their people are returned. And things like the housing blocks on these kibbutzim are communal property.
Second of all, many communities spent most of the last 480 some days internally displaced.
Third of all, many of the buildings are being used as testimony sites for people to understand the full scope of what happened that day.
Fourth of all, there is some rebuilding happening within the Kibbutzim. Kfar Aza has a project going on repairing their least damaged section of young adult housing, basically a block away from the picture where the recent photo of Emily Damari in front of the home from where was taken.
Fifth of all, not everyone returning home would feel it as a “gift” if their homes were cleaned up, repaired, and whitewashed for them, with them having no say in what reminders of their ordeal remained. Not everyone would want a nice clean home to return to, with the further violation of other people going through their stuff and determining what to salvage and what to dispose of.
I’m guessing that the Kibbutzniks know their people and have made choices accordingly when possible.
Sixth of all, as a matter of perspective, how long after 9/11 did it take the US to clean up the WTC site? How long after that to agree on a plan for rebuilding and memorialization? How long after that for the actual activities to occur? Where did the money come from? Where should it have come from? How long did those processes take?
So, it’s important to remember that there’s lots of complicating factors here. But there’s also the very real “what you might want isn’t what everyone in that situation would want.”
Comment by Dapper-Plan-2833 at 03/02/2025 at 07:13 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
TBN Israel had a really beautiful segment on Youtube yesterday or the day before, a piece covering a huuuuge volunteer effort by a group called Boots on the Group that is building new houses in one of the kibbutzim.
The question of whether to demolish the ruins from Oct 7 or to keep as a memorial seems a big one, I have heard in Kibbutz Be'eri this question is unresolved? That's like, fourth hand information though.
I think it is important to consider how traumatized everyone still is, mean time having to keep going, make up for absence of reservists, etc. A quick turn around was not going to be possible. However, I hope so much that very soon, all the kibbutz residents will be home and on the journey towards healing.
Comment by newmikey at 03/02/2025 at 09:06 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Rebuilding homes will take time, rebuilding the confidence of people to live so close to an enclave of savage and ruthless killers may take a lifetime. My cousins in Kfar Aza and Nir Am are contemplating returning to "caravillot" - a kind of mobile homes - because to go back to the same house in the same street where so many of your closest friends and neighbors were raped, taken away and/or murdered is just psychologically near-impossible.
My 87yo aunt cannot go back to Kfar Aza because she was wounded on Oct.7th and now requires a walker to get around whereas the roads in her kibbutz were still not patched up sufficiently for her to get around.
They need new streets and neighborhoods which are untainted and not full of memories of the loved ones walking the same streets. They also need guarantees from the army that something like this will never, ever, be allowed to happen again. They require better weapons and the authority to shoot on sight anyone who even comes close to the border fence. They need to replace the Gazans who worked their fields and betrayed them so badly replaced by other workers,
In short, rebuilding their homes is just one small puzzle piece of the whole picture.