In the months since Hamas’s surprise attack scattered them across the fields or drove them into hiding in the desert undergrowth, Thousands of survivors of a massacre at an electronic music festival in Israel have come together as a community to heal.
They have found solace in massage therapy, ice baths, yoga or surfing with the only people who could truly understand what they had been through. And they have built a strong support network for themselves as the war between Israel and Hamas continues and authorities struggle to provide services to devastated communities.
For some, recovery has come through dancing again.
On Thursday, thousands of people attended the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, the first mass gathering of the Nova Tribe since the October 7 attack.
“We understood that people needed to be united, and we are a community that takes care of itself”“I am traumatized and I wanted to be with people who have also been through this,” said Omri Sasa, one of the founders of the Nova Tribe, which organized the festival last October.
He was among about 3,000 people dancing all night in a field a few kilometers from Gaza when rockets lit up the sky at 6:29 in the morning. Heavily armed Palestinian militants rampaged through the festival, killing at least 364 people and taking more than 40 hostage. Many of them remain detained in Gaza.
Hila Fakliro, a communications student who was tending a bar at the festival, escaped by zigzagging through fields, hiding and running for more than five hours until she reached the safety of a village about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. Six of her friends were killed and three others taken hostage.
“Someone asked me if I could dance again and at first I said no.“, said. In January, at a tribute to one of her friends, she tried to dance, had a panic attack, and then tried again. “I was crying and dancing at the same time“, said.
But after attending events hosted by Nova survivors, he was once again able to find solace in the trance music he loves. At a recent event, she stepped into an ice bath while others attended yoga and art classes in a group of tents.
Omri Kohavi, 35, one of Nova’s founding organizers, said they had felt abandoned by Israeli security forces, who took hours to respond to the Oct. 7 attack. Kohavi, who is now director of community programming at the Nova Foundation, said organizers realized within days that “If we don’t take care of ourselves, no one else will.”.
Survivors began meeting to deal with the trauma they had experienced together. On the first day, 500 showed up. That number doubled the next day. After three months, they switched to weekly Community Day events and encouraged survivors to return to their normal lives and jobs.
At such events in Tel Aviv, survivors meet with therapists, lawyers, social workers or simply spend time together. The Nova Foundation connects survivors with opportunities for horse therapy, surfing and massage. Some have completed peer therapy training to help others, and the organization recently began providing support to families of the deceased.
Earlier this month, Israel rescued four hostages who were taken from the festival, which Sasa said “It was the greatest gift anyone could imagine.” That rescue operation led to the deaths of more than 270 Palestinians.
Thursday’s gathering was to raise money to support the volunteer network and call for the release of the remaining hostages. To appeal to a wider audience, it featured electronic music and mainstream artists, as well as Nova’s mainstay, trance.
“We need a lot of money, and the only way we know how to raise money is through events,” Sasa said.
Nova provided a separate area at the Nova Healing Concert for survivors and families of victims, and two hostages who were freed during a ceasefire in November addressed the crowd. A choir of mothers who lost their children performed.
The war sparked by the Hamas attack is far from over. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel on October 7, and another 250 were taken hostage. Israel’s massive offensive in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Fears of another all-out war, this time with Hezbollah in Lebanon, have people on edge.
Sivan Cohen, 30, said before Thursday’s event that he would be “dancing for two.” His partner of six years, Yaniv Sarudi, 26, died while trying to drive a car packed with nine festival-goers to safety. Cohen was shot in the leg and, at first, she wasn’t sure if she would walk again, much less dance.
“My friends and I have fully embraced this and come here every week.”Cohen said of Nova Community Days. He noted that it’s difficult to explain to those who weren’t there what it means to meet someone who was in that car or whose injuries he helped treat.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of people danced in the humid June heat as the sun set over the Nova stage. Spaces for reflection with mandalas and photos of the victims gave way to a massive party in the center of the stage.
“The only way to truly commemorate these people is to live what they lived, which is to dance. That’s what they came to do,” said Eyal Porat upon entering the festival.
Moran Stella Yanai, who was kidnapped from the Nova festival and held hostage for 54 days, took the stage and invited audience members to close their eyes.
“Imagine, imagine all the hostages standing in a row, holding hands, imagine them strong, imagine them smiling, imagine their families standing in front of them, imagine the happiness that begins to well up inside them,” Yanai said.
“Raise your hands to the sky, high and strong,” he told the crowd. “Open your eyes, believe and dance!”
(AP)
