Finally! I woke up so excited on Monday and rushed to my mom's place so we could watch the hostage release together. It felt like the whole country had stopped, and it helped that there wasn't work in most places because it was Erev Simchat Torah. Words can't explain how moving it was to see the 20 living hostages released, and to see the emotional reunions with their loved ones. Later in the afternoon, I heard and saw the helicopters bringing some of the hostages to one of the hospitals nearby. It was such a relief after I had become accustomed to hearing them only during emergencies, often carrying wounded soldiers in urgent need of care. For the first time, the released hostages didn't have to rush to send messages delivered from hostages left behind, and they didn't have to advocate for their urgent release after coming back from the nightmare of captivity. For the first time, they could focus on healing and recovery, and so can we. Now we are waiting for the bodies of 18 deceased hostages; 18 families deserve closure and a final goodbye.
I was just thinking that this will be the third October without the beloved InDnegev festival, when I saw an emotional post announcing the return of the festival in November:
Returning home and making hope bloom:
Two years since the world turned upside down for us.
We have all had two difficult and painful years, two years of dealing with endless pain and a lack of clarity about the future.
Work on InDnegev 23 was interrupted just before we reached our destination, and everything stopped.
We are excited and happy to announce that InDnegev is returning home, and we invite you to take part.
This is a call to everyone who is still determined to create hope, determined to dream of peace and a normal life, of a positive and healthy reality. This is a call to activism, to solidarity, to everyone who still has a drop of faith - come make hope bloom with us.
On November 13-15, we will open Mitzpe Gvulot and hold a very special and limited version of InDnegev, a weekend of cultural and artistic activity, a weekend in which we will escape to reality, the one we want and can create.
For the past two years, we have said that we will stay in Mitzpe Gvulot, and that we will wait until all the kidnapped people return and the war is over before we hold the festival again. We have always seen this as part of our mission - to be part of the renewed blooming of the Western Negev, through music, art, and people.
And now, even though everything is still broken and the future is still unclear, we can see a small ray of light. It is time to start creating a space again where we can look deeply into the wounds and begin the process of healing and recovery, allow ourselves to create hope, and allow ourselves to feel compassion.
We intend to do what we have always done: create an open and respectful space, with a diverse and amazing community, with an abundance of ideas. We will set up our stages and, next to them, the conversation tents and the displays, we will bow our heads in the face of the death and destruction of the past two years and raise our heads together to the sounds of hope.
The future is growing in you
And soon it will be reflected
It's also mine, it's also yours
We'll give it a name, it will take the rest
Without a plan, without an introduction
It simply decided to arrive
It's also yours, it's also mine
And everything else feels marginal
The heart beats with excitement
In the head, everything is less simple
This is just a drop in humanity
We'll row, and then we'll learn to sail
The future is very close
I don't even have time to think
It's also mine, it's also yours
We'll give it a name, it will take the rest
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