Hi! Tova Berkley here. Since I last wrote, the fighting in my Israel has worsened.
On Friday, June 1 2001, there was an anti-Israeli attack in a disco in Tel Aviv. It was the beginning of the weekend and
there were many teens at the disco just hoping to unwind, and for a few hours, get away from the stress of school finals and
the political situation in Israel. But their efforts were in vein -- a terrible tragedy occurred. A Palestinian extremist on
a suicide mission brought a bomb into the disco. He detonated the bomb, killing him and 18 Israeli teens. This is what the
war here has come to - the slaughter of innocents! Teens just looking to enjoy their lives end up dead and martyred, victims
of a shocking terrorist attack. How does the murder of 18 innocent teenagers in a disco change anything?
But the horrific violence doesn't stop there. Last week 4 people were murdered on the roads. Gila'ad Zar, who was the head
of security in my area, was assassinated in his car while driving on patrol. Three months ago he was shot at and injured. He
had just returned to work when he was murdered. Then, en route to his funeral, another car was shot at and two women were
killed. If we can't respect one another in life, can't we at least allow our dead to be buried in peace?
Last Friday morning another Jewish man was killed in his car, the victim of a sniper. A few weeks ago, on Jerusalem's
Independence Day, the school bus that some of my friends were riding was almost hit by a road bomb. It was a miracle that
nobody was killed. If the bomb had gone off just a second earlier there could have been even more dead teens in Israel.
This is our daily struggle. We are all normal teens, children and adults just wanting to live a happy and safe life. But
this civil war makes that impossible. My peers and I wonder everyday if we will live to graduate from school. We never know
whether we will make it to school alive, or if we will make it safely home. We may be killed on a trip to the mall, or at a
park, or on the street, or on a bus, or at a disco... We try to live like normal teens but living in a war zone is anything
but normal. All we want is peace. All we want is a future. Please don't forget us, your peers living in a war zone. Please
keep us in your thoughts and continue to pray for peace.
Guide Note: This is a first person account of the war in Israel told from the
perspective of a Jewish teen. Teen Advice invites both Palestinian and Jewish teens, in Israel or abroad, to
submit their perspective on this topic as a companion to Tova's
excellent work. The purpose of the My Story features is for teens to share their life experiences and feelings. We hope
that this sharing will open up a better understanding of the struggles faced by teens living in different parts of the world.
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