IndieCity is back, and this season is dedicated to the Gaza Envelope. Seven music videos were filmed at various places in the Gaza Envelope and one in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Check them all out here. "In the Place Where I Live" is taken from Jimbo J's latest album, which was completed just before October 7th and features texts about his life in Kibbutz Or HaNer (just outside of Sderot). Since filming this clip, he's returned to the kibbutz with his family, to the same beautiful landscape but to a very different reality. I've been thinking a lot about the families in the Gaza Envelope. In many cases, the parents grew up somewhere else but fell in love with the landscape, the laid-back atmosphere, and the opportunity to live in a community with like-minded neighbors. How aware were they of the threat from Gaza? Up until October 7th, there was a common saying that life in the area was 99% heaven and 1% hell, a peaceful life that was sometimes interrupted by a heavy round of rockets during which families often packed up and left for a quieter place in the country, usually for about a week or so. The biggest threat was tunnels leading into Israel but that had been solved by the IDF's above-and-bellow-ground barrier, and in any case, families were reassured that they were being protected by the army. Amir Tibon, who moved to Kibbutz Nachal Oz with his wife in 2014 and started a family there, describes in his moving memoir "The Gates of Gaza" not just his father's heroic journey to rescue his family on October 7th but also how life was in the kibbutz dating back to its founding in 1953. The book also gives a clear-eyed account of Israel's (and specifically Netanyahu's) relationship with Hamas and what led to this sense of quiet and security. It's still not clear how things will develop in the South, and in the North, but I doubt that families living by the border will be reassured again by "quiet will be answered with quiet".
*English subtitles are available in the video's settings
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