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The Cohen Family Of Kfar Darom
"We want the world to see three children without legs."
Terror is not blind. It knows perfectly well at whom it
strikes.
Three of the Cohen family’s children were injured in
a deliberate terror attack on a clearly marked school
bus during the early stage of the current round of
Palestinian attacks. Yisrael, 7, lost his right leg under
the knee; Tehila, 8, lost both legs; and Orit, 12, lost
part of her foot.
Terrorists detonated a large explosive device planted
on the road leading out of the Kfar Darom community
just as the school bus drove by.
Two adults – Miri Amitai and Gabi Biton – were
killed, and five children were wounded in the explosion.
Three of the children were from the Cohen family in
Kfar Darom. Although the three children sat in
different locations on the bus, when the bomb went
off, all three were seriously wounded in their legs.
The Kfar Darom school bus had been the target of two
previous Palestinian terror attacks. Two years earlier a
suicide bomber tried to blow it up. Then, too, three of
the Cohen children were on the bus. At that time, an
army jeep guarding the bus caught the full force of the
blast, and an Israeli soldier, Alexander Neikov, was
killed. The children at that time were unhurt; this
time they were not so lucky.
After the blast, Tehila found herself lying on the floor
of the bus. She saw and heard it all. An army medic
who treated her said she neither cried nor screamed.
From there, she was taken to an intensive care unit
where she spent three weeks undergoing one
operation after another. The doctors did everything
they could to save her legs, but failed.
When she woke up from one operation, she grabbed
her head with her hands and said, “I don’t want to
remember.” But after that she was gripped by a sudden
urge to write down all her thoughts. Since then, all her
memories have been locked in her closed diary.
Yisrael cried on the bus, but he told the medic to first
take care of his sisters. He was placed on a stretcher
and saw his leg placed carefully next to him. A few
days later, after he woke up in the hospital, he threw
off the blankets and began to scream, “Where is my
leg?”
A television director who lost a leg at Kfar Darom 25
years earlier came to visit and comfORT him. He said,
“Look, I have a new leg and I can do whatever I want
with it.”
"But you are a grownup," Yisrael shouted at him, "and
I am only seven." When he returned to school, he
drew a picture of a white ghost inside a black frame.
When asked what it represented, Yisrael responded,
“It is the spirit who I want to return my leg to me.”
A prosthesis is a very painful solution
An artificial limb is of course a solution, but it is a very
difficult and painful one. You cannot just get up in the
morning, put on your prosthesis and start walking.
When children are involved, a prosthesis is even more
difficult. Children grow, and as a result need a new
prosthesis every few months.
Tehila, for example, needs a new prosthesis now,
meaning that every day, one of her parents must go
with her to take measurements and fit the artificial leg.
And the new device always hurts at first. Afterwards,
after the stump has already gotten used to the new
artificial limb, sores may appear, making it impossible
to wear the prosthesis.
And after each operation – Orit has already had quite
a few since the explosion – a new prosthesis must be
fitted.
Noga Cohen: We can keep silent no longer!
For a long time, the Cohen family firmly refused to
speak to the media about its tragedy. The children
were opposed to any contact with the press and
wanted nothing to be written or published about them.
All they wanted was to be left alone. Some time ago,
however, Noga decided to grant an interview to an
Israeli newspaper. The younger children literally cried
when they heard their mother had agreed to an
interview.
Noga Cohen: “I know that every article like this
means a few steps back in the rehabilitation of the
children and the family, but this is my decision and I
will explain to the children that we have an impORTant
message to send.”
What is the messge?
“To show what it means to have three children
without legs. We are all so restrained, and no one
wants his pain exposed. The Palestinians show the
same wounded baby a thousand times. Here, we all
keep silent. I also refused to be interviewed at first.
On the first anniversary of the terror bombing, we
received dozens of phone calls with requests – and I
refused them all. But today I realize that we can no
longer keep silent. I am prepared to pay the price, and
will explain that to the children.”
What will you explain?
“I will tell them – yes, you are right. It is not pleasant
and it is painful, and I know that it is at your expense,
but this time I am making the decision. Just like the
decision to live in Kfar Darom. That was the decision
we, the parents, made – not the children. I will have
to take in your anger. But if – regrettably – people are
more willing to listen to those who have been hurt,
then even if it is distasteful and not nice, I will use this
vantage point to do anything to prevent more terror
attacks and casualties.
“I am prepared to pay the price to prevent another
family from getting hurt.”
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