Shevah students spend grim day going from from funeral to funeral
By Relly Sa'ar
Ha'aretz Education Correspondent
Outside the gates of Shevah high school in Tel Aviv yesterday a long line of buses waited to transport hundreds of students to five funerals of the victims of Friday's suicide bombing attack at the Dolphi discotheque on the Tel Aviv boardwalk. They had been students at the high school.
The buses each bore a sign noting to which funeral they were headed. Anya Kachkova, 16, was buried in the Yarkon cemetery at 10:30; Irena Nafmaniashtsy, 16, was buried in the same cemetery at 12:00; and the funerals of the sisters Yulia and Yelena Nelimov, 16 and 18, as well as that of Marina Zhirkovskaya, 17, took place in the afternoon, also at Yarkon cemetery.
The student Mariana Madbaneko, 16, was buried at 11:30 in the secular cemetery of the kibbutz Givat Brenner after she was not allowed burial in the Yarkon cemetery alongside her schoolmates. The principal of the school, Dr. Avi Benbineshti, commented that "the family preferred to bury their daughter properly. Because it was unclear whether Mariana could be considered a Jew, she could only have been buried outside the limits of the cemetery, which the family wanted to avoid." A member of the teaching staff said that Mariana was just as Jewish as anyone else, and should not have been distinguished from the other students.
The funeral of the sisters Yulia and Yelena Nelimov was widely reviewed by local and international media and was attended by around one thousand people, including Education Minister Limor Livnat, IDF Head Education Officer Brigadier General Stern, and the actor Haim Topol. Hundreds of wreaths were laid on the graves, including wreaths sent by the president, the Israeli government, the Knesset, the Tel Aviv municipality, and the Tikva neighborhood committee (where the family lives). Many more humble wreaths were also laid by friends of the sisters.
Education Minister Livnat spoke at the funeral, saying that "an enemy who massacres children cannot be a partner for diplomatic agreements" and that if the enemy cannot be forced to stop terrorist attacks by peaceful means, it will be forced to stop by other means. She added that justice lies with Israel, and it will overcome the enemy by strength of its national unity and, if needed, on the battlefield.
She expressed her sorrow for the loss of the sisters, and told the youths present that they were faced with the most difficult "exam" of maturity. She added that the will of the sisters would have been to continue to live and to love life.
Ha'aretz correspondents reported that several girls fainted during the funeral but were treated immediately and revived. Just a few meters away from the funeral, another grave was being dug in preparation for the funeral of another victim of the bombing - Marina Zhirkovskaya - who was buried less than an hour after the two sisters.
After the burial, the sisters' mother, Ella, walked away from the graves supported by family members and said "just don't let it happen to other girls."
In the early hours of the morning, Shevah high school held a short ceremony of commemoration for the victims. Students of the school, as well as many graduates who arrived wearing their military uniforms, congregated for hours in the school yard, lighting memorial candles and writing in the black books dedicated to the victims, written mostly in Russian language. Almost all of the students attending Shevah high school are Russian immigrants.
"Ira, our love. You were a good friend. We hope you see us and remain with us in our happy and sad times, and we hope you take care of us from above," wrote Valentin Kugan, Alex Mevchayev and Or Reznitsky, three of Irena Nafmaniashtsy's classmates.
"My job as principal," mourned Benbineshti at Nafmaniashtsy's funeral, " is to lead my students toward their matriculation exams and school graduation. In the Israeli reality, my job has become to accompany my students to their graves."
Deputy Minister of Absorption Yuli Edelstein spoke in Hebrew and Russian over the graves. "Middle-aged immigrants always say to me: we came to Israel for the future of our children, we know that for us there is nothing here. I can find no words of comfort for these families now."
It will take time before life is back to normal at Shevah high school. The matriculation exam in sociology planned for today will not take place, and the students will instead receive their inner school grade as the final grade in their exam certificate.
Additional exams planned for later this week have also been canceled.
According to Benbineshti, the students will need time to mourn and accept their loss, and must be given the possibility to express their pain and talk things out.
© copyright 2001 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved
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Praying, weeping or silently grieving, hundreds of people spent time yesterday at the site of Friday night's terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.(Photo: AP)
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