World Courant
KNOW THEIR NAMES
Danielle was simply 24 when she and her companion, Noam Shay, had been brutally murdered by Hamas on the Supernova Competition.
The daughter of Israeli tech billionaire, philanthropist and peace ambassador Eyal Waldman, 24-year-old Danielle inherited her father’s perception that Jews and Arabs might work collectively. He employed greater than 200 Palestinian engineers at Mellanox, the expertise firm he co-founded in 1999 and led till 2020, believing that cooperation might result in peace.
“Danielle was the identical as me. She believed that we must always try for peace. She labored with me as usually as she might,” recollects Eyal, who in 2020 raised $360,000 for an oncology unit at a hospital in Gaza.
“She at all times thought that doing good issues for different folks was the easiest way to do it. She knew and was mates with a lot of my Palestinian mates, and he or she at all times thought of different folks with out fascinated with herself. She helped so many individuals in her quick life.”
Danielle was together with her boyfriend, 26-year-old Noam Shay, on the Supernova music competition, which passed off close to Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza border, when it was attacked by Hamas on October 7. About 364 folks had been killed and 40 had been taken hostage by Hamas, in accordance with the primary Israeli police report on the assault.
Danielle and Noam had met six years earlier whereas each serving within the Israeli military, and had been inseparable ever since.
“That they had simply talked about getting married,” Eyal explains. “However as a substitute of a marriage, we had a funeral and buried them collectively.”
The automobile wherein Danielle Waldman and Noam Shay tried to flee the assault on the Supernova music competition by Hamas on October 7 once they had been killed (courtesy of Eyal Waldman)
Most of the lots of of Israeli, Palestinian residents of Israel and foreigners killed by Hamas fighters on the Supernova music competition despatched textual content and voice messages to their family members to say goodbye. However Eyal did not even have that.
“I did not get to say goodbye to her. She texted at 6:30 am to say all the pieces was wonderful. That was the final we heard from her. A minimum of I’ve,” he says. “I even have a video of them being within the automobile earlier than they had been killed and an audio recording of considered one of her mates being injured. However by then she was in all probability already useless.”
“Daniëlle was nice. She could not damage a fly and he or she beloved everybody. Everybody who got here into contact together with her beloved her too,” he says.
“My ex-wife (Danielle’s mom) not too long ago referred to as me to inform me she had a dream about their marriage ceremony,” Eyal says, choking again tears.
Regardless of his insufferable loss, Eyal says he has no regrets about working with Palestinians and stays optimistic that the day will come when the 2 folks will coexist in peace. He additionally has motive to imagine that the present warfare could possibly be a catalyst or set off for reconciliation: “After the 1973 Yom Kippur Warfare, we began the peace course of with Egypt and signed an settlement with them. There is no motive this may’t occur once more. We should resolve this battle. We have been killing one another for 75 years.”
When requested about his most cherished reminiscence of his daughter, he recollects a snowboarding vacation in France when Danielle spontaneously began dancing.
“She beloved to bop. She danced on a regular basis,” he says. “I simply posted a video of that day the place she was dancing in France and my three youngsters joined in. It was the music Titanium, which says, “I am bulletproof.” It is one of the best reminiscence I’ve.”
‘Bulletproof’: the quick, lovely lifetime of Danielle Waldman | Israeli-Palestinian battle
Africa Area Information ,Subsequent Large Factor in Public Knowledg