9-Feb-08: About anonymous victims

We've personally learned a good deal in the past six years about how little awareness there is of the identity and humanity of individual victims of terrorism.

The story of the despicable Gazan-Palestinian-Arab human bombs who exploded themselves in a Dimona shopping mall this week (see "4-Feb-08: Reaping a Gazan harvest"), bent on destroying anything Jewish within range, created the usual impact: the usual headlines, the usual superficial and fleeting coverage, the usual "cycle of violence" nonsense in the media.

But behind the headlines, there are people.

Lyubov Razdolakaya and Eduard Gedalin, world-class theoretical physicists, immigrated to Israel from Georgia seeking a better future. Any future the husband and wife of nearly 50 years had left together came to a halt Monday in the desert town of Dimona.

"When the bomber struck, the couple were on their way to the bank, pausing outside one of the shops in the town's center to take in the warm sun... Despite their contributions to the field of particle physics, they were relatively anonymous in their transplanted home."

Their story is here - please click to read the JTA article, and restore a tiny amount of dignity to the stolen humanity of the most recent victims of this ongoing war.