"I intend to start a family here, and I will establish it near Gaza. My children will grow up in the envelope, and that will be my victory. What keeps me sane is that I know I'm Jewish, that this is my place." These decisive words are spoken by actor Uri Biton (24), one of the stars of the youth series "Comprehensive Milan" and a resident of Kibbutz Bror Hayil near Gaza - and he is not alone.
Interview with Makhav Milano players // Photo: Moshe Ben-Simhon
"On October 7, something happened that hadn't happened to me before," joins Ran Moshiov, 27, his castmate. "I was on a trip to Poland and a combat soldier, but all this happened in the world before. I didn't really feel what it meant to be Jewish. October 7 determined that I was Jewish, and I think that's how Holocaust survivors felt as well. Today I know that I am Ran, I am a Jerusalemite, I am an Israeli and I am a Jew. My emotion is that I will live in Israel and start a family here."
"I see myself living only here," says actress and model Adi Tene, 20. "I can't see our Judaism, Israeliness and community existing anywhere else. My brother lives in Europe and can be alone for a long time. In Israel, that can't happen."
"I have always loved the country and said that my children will grow up here, in Israel - in Herzliya, Rishon LeZion or the Krayot, but the phrase 'I have no other country' takes on a different meaning today," concludes actress and network star Kim Or Azoulay, 21. "I have no other country, and I feel that I will not be safe and secure anywhere else in the world, even when there is a war here.
"I am the great-granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, who has always been crazy about the State of Israel. Today I feel that we are fighting for our right to be here. Things have become clearer for younger generations as well. At the end of the day, we are a young country, and everyone who was born here now understands that it is not self-evident that people were killed on our land in order for us to be here, that this is what we are doing, unfortunately, so that we can continue to live here."
"We bonded as a group like never before." Stars of "Surrounding Milan", photo: Kfir Ziv
"First to the flag"
Last September, the quartet finished filming the fourth season of the youth series "Comprehensive Milan", which premiered this week on Kan Educational and Kan BOX. The series, created by Avner Bernheimer, Yair Peri and Noy Carmel and based on the aura of "A Matter of Time", deals with the world of teenagers, speaks their language and is not afraid to touch any taboo. The plots of previous seasons featured a sex scene, a kiss between two boys and coming out of the closet, sexual exploitation by an older star, eating disorders, self-harm and the breakup of families. The fourth season, filmed last summer, deals with the school graduation year - about the features, matriculation, prom and graduation show. The main axis is a traumatic incident of violence that leads to an examination of coping methods from several aspects, and it is difficult if not impossible not to link it to war.
We meet in the afternoon, and the four, all stars of the younger generation, come from shooting days, morning shows and modeling shoots, and they've been up since 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning. Despite waking up early, their fresh faces show almost no signs of fatigue. These are hardworking and motivated guys, and when they go up to be photographed on set, energetic and smiling, you can imagine them bursting out singing "It'll be good."
Call you the "TikTok generation," but that generation is now fighting for the country in the north and south.
Uri: "We are a generation that fights very well. There are the guys who were recruited under Order 8, and then there are the Nova survivors who saved themselves from a party infested with "Noahs" - so let them be on TikTok as much as they want. These are 20-year-olds, like my brother Eyal, who stood on a roof on October 7 with a personal weapon, watching orchards and looking for 'comforts,' and he was on TikTok a lot."
"For years we've been laughed at and diminished with statements like 'the TikTok generation that doesn't know how to appreciate,'" Kim adds, "and now we're the first to stand at attention and be called to the flag. The rate of combat recruitment is only rising. My brother, who is 19, was Jobenik, and now he insists on moving to combat and will serve in the Border Police. The TikTok generation is first in the battle."
Do you have friends fighting now?
Kim: My best friends are fighting. Yiftah's cousins (her partner, basketball player Yiftach Ziv), who are like family to me - one of them in Lebanon and the other in Gaza. I have friends in Gaza, and every morning I wake up and realize that our age group is being plucked, walking. My menstrual classmates. In another world I could have dated one of them, or he would have dated my best friend. They were all supposed to be at the opening festival at universities, and it ends my soul that they are fighting, that some of them are falling. My brain can't grasp it. There are younger soldiers there, including some who fell. They are pure souls, and they haven't started their lives yet."
Ran: "I served in Magellan and was injured in the back before liberation, but my friends were jumped on October 7 and they are fighting now. I'm scared and I think about them, and it's no ordinary fear. With all my emotions and baggage, I feel part of them right now. We had a friend's wedding last week, and they came out of Gaza especially. I felt like we were all getting married."
Adi: "Zikim was my base. I served as a rescue guide, and the beach from which the terrorists entered is very familiar to me. I had a demanding service, but I owe who I am to my service. When I received raiders raiding Zikim, I immediately understood that there were fighters there that I had trained, my friends."
Kim Or Azoulay: "Our age group is picked, walking. In another world I could have dated one of them. They were all supposed to be at the opening festival at universities, and it finishes my soul that they are fighting, that some of them are falling."
Adi received these pushes when she was found in Tenerife, where she was on a surfing holiday with her father. "As soon as we realized what was happening, we folded in order to return to Israel. My friends were whisked into Gaza, and some of them are now there. Three friends called me for a farewell call. I get goosebumps when I think back to those conversations. It was terrible."
Uri, who grew up on Kibbutz Bror Hayil near Gaza, was in India on 7 October. "I was there for two and a half weeks, and when it all started I was sitting in a restaurant on the beach," he says. "There was a huge gap between the peaceful Indians and what I understood was going on here. I didn't understand how the world didn't get back on its feet. I saw a video of Hamasniks behind Rami Levy's branch, and I didn't understand what I was seeing. In five videos, I identified Sderot neighborhoods, and friends wrote on WhatsApp 'terrorist in the village of Gaza,' 'terrorist in Bari.' My friends from Kfar Gaza wrote, 'We hear gunshots,' and friends from Sderot wrote, 'We locked the safe rooms.' I called my father and asked what I understood wrong, and he said, 'You got everything right, we woke up to a nightmare.'"
Over the next few hours, Uri learned that his uncle, Aviv Baram (33), from Kfar Azza, had been injured. "He was in the alert squad, jumped among the first and left my aunt and two children at home. My father hurried to end the conversation with me. I could only hear him say, 'I'm with two cartridges,' and he hung up. He managed to organize our kibbutz's alert squad and ran to protect the family."
Uri goes through hours of anxiety when he is away from home, family and friends. His mother Galit and younger brother Yoav hid in the safe room and he was in contact with them by phone, while at the same time taking care of his friends from Sderot and the surrounding communities. "My father and mother grew up in Sderot, and our extended family lives there," he says, "so I have my house in Sderot, my grandparents and my gang from the city.
"When I heard that there were terrorists in Bari, in the village of Gaza, in the levels, in Nahal Oz, in Netiv Ha'enrich, the names of everyone I know immediately came up, but there's no time to deal with it, because the biggest anxiety was that the next name would be clear.
"I got a video from the kibbutz gate, and I realized that my father was there with a gun. The night before there was a huge party on the kibbutz and there were bottles of beer left, so they made Molotov cocktails from them and took personal guns, whoever it was. They had the feeling that they would defend the kibbutz with what was available, until forces arrived to help. My brother Eyal, a Givati soldier, was put in a lookout on the rooftops, and he watched the orchards, looking for 'nachvot' that were on the way to us.
"I was anxious about the video and didn't know what was going on, if my father was fighting, if my brother was running. I didn't think of anything at that moment. I know that whoever was supposed to protect the envelope didn't come. They waited six hours and didn't show up."
Life and reality mixed. The quartet from "Comprehensive Milan", photo: Kfir Ziv
In Bror Hayil, the kibbutz famous for its Brazilian vibe, which includes samba and soccer, Hamas terrorists have not succeeded in sowing destruction and killing. They reached the outskirts of the kibbutz and continued to Sderot. Several terrorists were found wandering in the area and were caught.
Uri went through days of anxiety until the rescue flight from India, which brought him, his partner and the friend who traveled with them back to Israel. "We realized that in India we couldn't stay. We cried there all the time, we were devastated, and all the Israelis gathered together to feel safe," he recalls. "I was very scared when the names came, but I had to understand who was murdered, who was kidnapped, who was injured and who survived. When the identifications arrived, so did the identification of my uncle, Aviv. We knew there was a small chance he survived, but we hoped. Then came the names of those who were not found - twins Gali and Ziv Berman, Emily Damari, Alon Shimriz and more. I made the link that they were in Gaza. They were all lying above me, my friends.
"I waited and wanted to get to Israel, but my father told me not to rush back, because it wasn't clear what was happening here. He told me: 'Uri, you have nowhere to go back. Everyone is evacuated, think about where you want to wander with a bag, here or in India.' My family was evacuated to Eilat, and then to Haifa. Then they moved to Tel Aviv, and from time to time returned home, to the kibbutz. Now we're on the kibbutz, we're back."
The father, Asher Biton (53), is a combat navigator in the Israeli Air Force and is in the reserves, and the younger brother, Eyal, serves in Givati and is in Gaza. "He's a highly motivated poisoned kid, and we trust him," Big Brother says proudly.
Uri Biton: "I wasn't there with my family on Black Saturday, and I've been trying to understand since then what I'm even allowed to say. Who am I compared to people who were in the safe room? How much am I allowed to complain? Does it make sense that I'm experiencing PTSD because of an event I wasn't in?"
Just before returning to his family, Uri tattooed a souvenir of his two houses on himself: "An Israeli tattoo artist came, I told her about myself and she tattooed a house and a sign on me with two arrows - to pick a soldier and to Sderot," he says. "It's my first tattoo, and now, no matter where I'm evacuated or whether I have anywhere to go back to or not, I'll always have a reminder of both of my homes."
Was it a complicated childhood to grow up in the shadow of security tension?
"It's a childhood juggling in between. They practiced the routine with us, it's been like that all our lives. They play soccer on the field and if there is an alarm, lie down on the ground, cover your head with your hands, and when it's all over you just go back to playing. I didn't feel fear most of the time, that's how I grew up. This is my home and this is the situation. The most important thing for me was to be together with my community, and even today it is the most important to me. You grow up with the feeling that as long as we're together, nothing can happen."
When did you realize that not everyone lives like you?
"In sixth grade. In one of the operations, we were evacuated to Tel Aviv, and when I asked where the protected area was, they didn't understand what I was asking. Only then did I realize that not everyone lives this way, with a 15-second warning. As a child, they explained to me that what the bad guys want is my home, that they want to be here instead of us, and that what we do to fight them is just living here.
"It was fixed in me as a child that they would win if they moved us out of here. Do they want us not to live here? So I won't move from here. Every military operation and every escalation made me come to the south, no matter where I was. It's something that's ingrained in me. We will live with sirens and missiles - but atonement, I am here, I will not let them win.
"Because of that, after I came back from India, it was hard not to be at home. The evacuation was hard for me. I felt they had won. I didn't understand why it was impossible to go back. Every minute I'm not there is a victory for them. There's a child inside me who says, 'Don't let them.'"
Do you hear other voices from friends too? From communities near the Gaza Strip?
"Yes. There are constant wars between 'wanting to return' and 'nowhere to go'. The community still doesn't know what will happen, and many young people who already want to start their lives have rented places to live independently, alone. They said, 'We can't wait for something to happen,' and from day to day it seems that we're not going to eradicate the threat from there, but there are also many who still want to return."
"A question of guilt"
Just before the war, as mentioned, the filming of the fourth season of "Comprehensive Milan" ended, and the cast was joined this season by Shiri Maimon, Joy Rieger and Rotem Ohayon. They play alongside the regular actors of the series, including Aki Avni, Moshe Ashkenazi, Eili Chapman, Naya Binstock and many more. The main plot revolves around a violent incident at night at the beach, in which Roy (Ran Moshiov) is attacked while his friends Peleg (Ori Biton), Ziv (Kim Or Azoulay) and Mali (Adi Tene) witness different moments from the attack.
Throughout the season, each of the characters goes through a course of coping with the trauma: Roy goes on a quest for revenge, Mali cannot cope with the anxiety and escapes from reality, Peleg, who froze in the event and has been hiding his secret since the incident, pays a heavy emotional price, and Ziv adopts radical positive thinking.
"In the fourth season, you're already getting into character, there's a dialogue, you already feel like they're writing the script about you," Ran says. "I had a great experience. The shoot came at a point in my life when I felt they were home. There were laughs, and new players joined in bringing new energy. You go to work and you feel a breath of fresh air."
Uri nods in agreement: "We felt a lot of calm during the shoot. As with every series, in the first season we built a world and filming was intense, because we shot the first two seasons together. In the third season, the characters have already developed, and in this season the director picked up our sparks and let us bring them. I felt I had a place to bring myself, initiate and create."
"We bonded on set as a team like never before," Tene adds. "I started filming at the age of 16, we were all kids. We'd been friends before, but this season I was emotionally available to live in the moment. In this shoot it was the first time I had the presence of an actress on set. My experience was tough in the past, and in retrospect I know I had no idea what I was doing. The role of Mali was the third audition I ever did. I was thrown into a series with zero acting knowledge and no real understanding of what it means to build a character. This season I really got to know Mali deeply."
"The characters evolved." In the new season of "Comprehensive Milan", photo: photo: courtesy of Kan Educational
The season was written and filmed before October 7, but the characters' coping strategies with trauma and PTSD are similar to those many have adopted since the war began.
Uri: "What happened to me in reality is exactly like what happens to Peleg this season. I saw everything from the side, I wasn't there with my family that black Saturday, and I've been trying to figure out what I'm even allowed to say. Who am I compared to people who were in the safe room? How much am I allowed to complain? Does it make sense that I'm experiencing PTSD because of an event I wasn't in?
"There's a question of guilt because I wasn't there, and the whole community also feels a lot of guilt. We understand that it was roulette - they entered one community and the other did not, one house did and the other did not, one house left alive because they escaped from the safe room and in another they did not. We feel guilty about what steered this roulette, what could have happened, why I flew to India and where I could have been that day, and what would have happened to me and others.
"I, like Peleg, could have chosen differently, to prevent something bad, and he has a secret that he carries with him. He feels guilty and feels that he shouldn't talk about the fact that someone who has experienced such an event from the sidelines is also going through something difficult."
Kim: "At first I didn't even understand what Ziv's character was doing. It took me a while to connect with her, and today, in retrospect, I realize that I am very much like that. Even today, in a difficult situation, I find myself talking a lot about consciousness, about summoning the good and about positive thinking, with sentences like 'think good – it will be good.' There is also a mechanism of repression, but if you get it in the right dose, it can work. Today I am one step behind Ziv, I understand that we need to talk about things, let them go - and only then move on. She doesn't do that, so she's in a big emotional whirlwind."
Adi: "When I read the script the first few times, I judged Mali, but a week before filming began, I was reversing in the parking lot, and a stranger started attacking my car with physical violence, and verbally assaulting me. I had my first and only panic attack in my life there, and basically what happened to my character happened to me. That's where the token fell that the degree of trauma is the same as helplessness. What I felt in the car, when a stranger tried to force open my door and shouted at me, was total helplessness. He took away my freedom to choose, and I was left unable to do anything. The trauma connected me to Mali, and there I realized that she, too, felt completely helpless."
Ran: "Roy is very 'doggy' and sensitive. He comes into this season choosing the good, and then something bad happens to him that he didn't bring upon himself, so he doesn't understand why it happened. His need for revenge stems from the fact that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the people closest to him, his partner and his best friend, do not envelop him or deny what happened. So he needs to go back to his instincts, which are violent because of his past. I connect with him, and the fact that he can't put his feelings aside, because that's not an option for him. It's irrational, something burns inside it, and that's also my battle with life. My stomach is undoubtedly my leading organ. Something about me was blocked for many years, but now I cry a lot. Today I'm a whiner."
More than two years ago, Ran and Naya Binstock, who plays Nori, met on the set of the series and became a couple - but this time they met as exes. "It was fine, we're super professionals," he says with a smile. "We were a couple for a long time, and we had a very good world. And yes, I can say that the relationship was based on a lot of love and genuine caring, and that we didn't cancel those things when we parted. We didn't remove a follower on Instagram, for example, and we're also acting together in the Habima play 'My Soul's Love'. I'm not in a relationship right now."
"Neither do I," Adi tells her readers, "and I'm not looking for a partner right now. Life happens, and if it comes, it will come, but it will have to fit well and correctly into my life."
The two occupants on the set are Ori and Kim, and they also recently collaborated on the film "Running on the Sand," which was released this month. Uri plays a soccer player in the team from Netanya, and Kim - the team manager, the daughter of the owner (Zvika Hadar).
"It's a very meaningful role for me, a strong female character," she says. "I'm first and foremost an actress, and I have what it takes to be here for a long time. I've worked this role, and I feel like it's matured me."
"Proportions for life"
The outbreak of war led to a rapid recruitment in the field of cultural figures and youth stars. One of the first to volunteer was Kim. She's an experienced internet star, with 700,630 followers on TikTok, <>,<> followers on Instagram and millions of likes. She went on Zoom calls and meetings with children, and devoted hours to international advocacy.
"I may not be Kylie Jenner, but 100,200 or <>,<> followers from abroad are enough to be exposed to my post, and maybe I'll be able to change their opinion. I spoke in English, and when I feel I have something to say and I can influence and change, I do it. Especially when it's such an important issue as home and country. It's my heart, and I'm fortunate to have the ability and privilege to use advocacy."
What responses have you received?
"First of all - a huge hug from Israelis. Everyone understood how much power we have and how important it is. I got a lot of messages from people around the world as well. For example, people who watched Spiders (a series sold to HBO to broadcast in 170 countries) wrote to me: 'Hey, we follow you and know you from the series, and we're really sorry to hear about the situation in Israel. We Stand With Israel'.
"Of course, there were also opposite and harsh reactions from the same audience, who watched me on the show and wrote: 'I used to love you and now I don't anymore,' as well as harsh curses against Israel. There were no threats against me, but when I visited Yiftah, who plays in Spain, I felt – and I say with regret – how the news portrayed Gaza as poor and us as bad. I felt like screaming - but I didn't do it, I didn't confront anyone. We are seeing the worst waves of anti-Semitism in the world even now."
Have your proportions changed since the war? Have you grown up?
Ran: "For every generation of Jews you can say, 'You have grown up.' Also about our parents, who were in the Yom Kippur War, or about our grandparents, who were in the ghetto. It goes back years."
Uri: "We will always compare ourselves to youth in Europe or the United States, but we are not them. Being Israeli means that until the age of 17 you celebrate life – and at the age of 18 you hold a weapon. There's nothing you can do - and I'm proud of it.
"I'm proud of who I am and the life I'm going through, and when I compare myself to young people abroad I realize how much proportion we have. They're like, 'Oh, I didn't get to play a drinking game,' but we know what's really important."
Adi: "I noticed that since October 7 I have made a serious shift in my attitude towards the family. When I get home, I ask my father how his day went and listen to the answer. This is important. I suddenly realize that nothing is forever. Time is precious, every second counts."
shirz@israelhayom.co.il
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