mourning

Anat Meir and her baby mourn her husband David Meir, an Israeli soldier killed on October 7 at Kibbutz Be'eri, at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, November 8, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

‘Survival of the nation’: Israel’s obsession with dead soldiers’ sperm

Postmortem sperm retrieval has become state policy, with a quarter of all male soldiers killed since October 7 undergoing the procedure. But by creating a pressure valve for grieving families, it only perpetuates war.

By Nathalie Rozanes September 4, 2026

Familiies of Israelis held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza set a symbolic Shabbat table with more than 200 empty seats for the hostages, at "Hostage Square" outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, October 20, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Picking up the pieces of our grief

As Israelis and Palestinians retreat inward, it is extremely difficult for those of us who are trying to hold both peoples’ pain. But we must try.

By Noam Shuster-Eliassi October 20, 2023

My father, standing in the back row, with his parents and three of his siblings in Tulkarem.

When heroes fall far from home

Perhaps I expected some measure of defiance, for him to rage, as Dylan Thomas begged of his father, ‘against the dying of the light.’ But in the end, there was no rage left in my father, even as the core injustice of his life — that he could never return home — remained. When he…

By Samer Badawi May 1, 2017

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Mother of Hallel Yaffa Ariel mourns over her body during a funeral ceremony in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, in the West Bank, June 30, 2016. Earlier in the day, a 17-year-old Palestinian broke into the family home and stabbed to death 13-year-old Hallel in her bedroom. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Teen’s murder is a reminder that we are all settlers

Just as we must mourn Hallel Yaffa Ariel as a human being and a slain child, we must also mourn her as a settler — because all Israelis are responsible for her presence in the West Bank. Superlatives are inadequate to tell the sorrow of recent weeks. Thirteen-year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to…

By Dahlia Scheindlin July 1, 2016

Israelis standing at attention on the side of the road during the Memorial Day siren. (ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com)

Standing up to the monopoly on mourning in Israel

For those of us who confront the realities of what goes on here every day, especially those of us who cannot escape it, or who make it part of our profession, every day is a form of Memorial Day and Independence Day. That is what we are trying to change. I went to one of…

By Mairav Zonszein May 11, 2016

Israeli Jews at the scene of an attempted stabbing in Beit Shemesh, outside of Jerusalem, October 22, 2015. The two suspected Palestinian attackers were shot by Israeli police. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

How to mourn terror victims as a leftist

Leftists always worry that the Right will exploit violence to advance its political agenda, so we remain silent. The Left needs to learn how to mourn while rejecting the political programs of our leaders — and even the victims. On Sunday, Dafna Meir, mother of six was murdered in her West Bank home with three…

By Dahlia Scheindlin January 19, 2016

Family and friends of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Fraenkel, three Israeli teenagers who were abducted over two weeks ago, take part in their funeral in the city of Modiin, Israel, Tuesday, July 1, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The Israeli nation collectively mourns – but why?

Paradoxically, the feeling that those who were killed could have been our children – feeling as though they are our children – is one of the mechanisms that convinces people to send their children to kill and to die. By Inna Michaeli In the days following the announcement of the murder of the three abducted…

By +972 Magazine July 7, 2014