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THE DOLPHINARIUM MASSACRE, TEL AVIV
Fifteen young men and women murdered at the entrance to a popular Tel Aviv discotheque
Terror is not blind – it knows perfectly
well where it strikes,a nd whom it slays.
On Friday night, June 1, 2001, a large crowd of
young men and women crowded near the
entrance to a popular Tel Aviv discotheque on
the seashore called the Dolphinarium, waiting
impatiently to get inside and “party.”
The club’s owners organized a party attended
mainly by Russian-speaking Israelis. By 11:30,
150 youths were already waiting in line. Most
were girls, since it was “Ladies Night” and the
disco promised free entrance to girls entering
before midnight.
“I looked at them, they were all laughing,” recalls
the owner of a kiosk located just 15 meters from
the club. “The boys were flirting with the girls,
the girls were chatting among themselves. They
were all in a good mood. They looked like
angels, dressed so nicely.”
Like youths all over the world, they just wanted
to have a good time, enjoy the weekend, and
dance - feel the rush of life.
However, just before 11:30, a terrorist wearing an
explosive belt came to the club. He surveyed the
area and pushed his way into the most crowded
spot – a group of young girls standing in the
middle of the long line.
At 11:35 p.m., he detonated himself.
A huge ball of fire burst into the sky and the
deafening boom of the explosion was heard up to
10 kilometers away. In a split second, the happy,
natural, friendly scene turned into an inferno.
People flew into the air; mangled body parts were
everywhere. A second after the explosion, the
entrance to the “Dolphy,” as the club was known,
looked as if it had been bombed from the air.
Dozens of people were lying on the ground. Many
were dead. Some tried to get up and extricate
themselves from the nightmare, only to collapse a
few moments later because of the wounds they sustained.
The pavement was covered with blood – as well
as pieces of human flesh, shards of glass, slivers
of metal and torn clothing. The air was filled
with the sound of hundreds of people screaming
for help; screeching in the pain.
The ambulance teams arrived within minutes.
One medic approached a jean-clad girl lying on
the ground, suffering from head and chest
wounds. Minutes after the medic approached, the
girl stopped moving.
Twenty-one young men and women were murdered
in that attack on a Tel Aviv summer night.
Fifteen of them were under the age of 18.
The dilemma in Shevah High School: Whose funeral to attend?
Five of the murdered teens were students of
one school, the Shevah-Mofet High School in
Tel Aviv. On the Sunday after the attack, a
chilling notice was pinned on the school bulletin
board:
“Students are requested to write their names
and class number under the name of the funeral
they wish to attend.
“Students! Make sure to register for one funeral
only!”
The aim of these instructions – “make sure to
register for one funeral only” – was to protect
the children, to keep them from exposing themselves
to unbearable pain.
The instructions, however, gave rise to an impos sible
dilemma – whose funeral to attend? Should
it be Mariana’s – she always helped friends in
their studies? Or perhaps Anya’s – who always
knew how to cheer people up when they were
down? Or maybe they should attend the double
funeral of sisters Yulia and Elena?
In actual fact, no one observed these heart-wrenching
school rules. Those who came on
school-organized buses to the funerals of sisters
Yulia and Elena Nalimov, remained for the funeral
of Marina Berkovski – held at the same cemetery.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan comes to express sympathy for the school
The school decided to open its doors on the
morning after the attack – a Saturday. Shabbat.
The Day of Rest.
But for those at the school that day, it was anything
but a day of rest. The faculty filled the role
of social workers, comforting sobbing teenagers,
who just a day earlier, had innocently believed
final exams to be the most significant event thing
in their lives.
“How can it be that we – children – should
turn on the television and see our friends dead,”
one of the students told a repORTer who came to
the school.“ We want to turn the television on
and watch cartoons or soap operas, not our own
friends lying on stretchers.”
They certainly should not have to attend their
friends’ funerals.
The school was inundated by visitors who felt a
dual need to express shock at the terror outrage
and empathize with the students and teachers.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
was among the visitors, writing in the visitors’
book: “It is tragic that the lives of these young
people were cut short in this way. Please accept
my condolences and deepest sympathy for your
sorrow.”
The young victims: 15 lives cut short before they had really begun
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