On video: Interview with the head of the Matula Council David Azoulai after the shooting of the settlement 08.02.24/Yoav Itiel
4:45 in the morning, it's cold in Metula, a degree or two, but what does it matter?
A few layers of clothes, the woolen hat is put on and left for guarding at the settlement's gate, on the walkie-talkie they call him S.G., but Rabak, it's not S.G., this is the entrance to the most beautiful settlement in the country.
What do the barriers have to do with us and the concrete blocks that are placed on the road?
At the gate a vine is waiting and preparing black coffee, "black as our life" he says and rolls with laughter.
You receive a short briefing from the guards, a short contact check and enter the vigil style, an infiltrating outpost in Lebanon, and during the vigils, the thoughts come to them - "Now I am calm, Sagi left Gaza safe and sound, Noam is an instructor at a pre-military preparatory school, she must be sleeping now before another day full of activity and Keren can during these times work 24/7, mental health therapists have no shortage of work now."
"One more little effort and we will return home", the Azuz family/courtesy of those photographed
"What is the costume I've been wearing for over 150 days?"
Aviv Azuz/courtesy of the photographers
"And I, the clerk, Ototo is 55 years old and I'm trying to understand what the costume I've been wearing for over 150 days and nights and how I got to the point where I'm armed from head to toe and heavy on me, physically heavy, mentally heavy, heavy. After all, during the Second Lebanon War I announced that this was it, so How did I get back to this loop? I want to go home, I mean I'm home but I hardly ever enter it, Keren and the kids are scattered all over the country and who would have thought that I would long for a relaxed weekend and a standard Friday dinner, just ours as we've been strict about for years. The zealots don't give up their Friday dinner."
The noise of engines rumbles in the background and wakes me up from my thoughts - I go out to check, a vine covers me, strange, I need someone to cover me at the gate of the picturesque Metula colony.
A few words about the connection and the convoy enters with lights off and disappears in the dark.
"More coffee?"
Black as your life I answer him and sink in my thoughts.
Sagi goes up to the North Line, comes to guard the house, a type of KLB, but the concept of 'home' has a different meaning in the reality that was imposed on us, on the residents of the evacuated settlements, he goes home once a... and wanders from place to place, he has not seen his room Long months and going home is already written in double and double quotation marks.
"I am armed from head to toe and I am heavy, physically heavy, mentally heavy, heavy"/courtesy of the photographs
Losing the North, a special project of Walla!/Reuven Castro
Sagi is a child who grew up on the fence, his older sister Noam and he were born on the fence in Kibbutz Mashgav-am, and grew up on the fence in Toula, they know from the day they were born where they live and what the dangers are, they saw with their own eyes things that older and wiser than them did not understand until that black Sabbath of the 7th in October.
They knew it could happen and those who were supposed to protect us didn't know and I wonder what hurts more now, the cold penetrating my bones, the weight of the ceramic vest, or maybe the thought that we knew and how they up there didn't see it coming.
The walkie-talkie rattles, comes back into focus, a septic alert spoils the sight of the amazing sunrise and the first light that rises on the Golan Heights.
We start another unusual day in Metula and know that together we will win, with another little effort we will return home to our magical corner and we will have another family story to tell the grandchildren.
Aviv Azoz, 55 years old, is the secretary of a trade union in the new General Histadrut.
His wife, Karen Azoz, 47 years old, is a human social worker at the Mental Health Association. Their eldest daughter, Noam Azoz, 22 years old, is an instructor at the pre-military training school at Gal School.
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Matula
Gaza war
War of Iron Swords