The Yellow Trash Container – Amir Khodorov, Creator and Artist
On December 31, 2023, I embarked on a journey to commemorate the victims of October 7, 2023, at the Re’em parking lot. I started by connecting the faces of everyone’s beautiful loved ones, following a meeting with Sigal Shemer, the mother of Ron Shemer, who was murdered at the party.
Since the beginning of this difficult journey, I have come to know each one of them, and I have been exposed to the wonderful qualities of the young men and women who celebrated and rejoiced at the party venue, and especially to the values they demonstrated on that terrible day: “Unconditional love,” “Love for all,” and especially “Self-sacrifice for the sake of saving others.” Many of them chose to stay and try to save others they didn’t know, even though they could have escaped from the party and saved themselves.
In March 2024, together with Yoram Yehudai, the father of Ron Yehudai who was murdered in the trash container at the party venue, I began another journey to investigate and reveal what 16 young men and women went through as they hid inside a yellow trash container for about 5 hours, waiting for a miracle to save them from Palestinian Hamas terrorists, who were acting barbarically at the party site.
The journey was difficult. I got to know them all, spoke with the survivors who were willing to tell the exact story, minute by minute, of what happened during those long hours — an eternity, during which they were at the mercy of fate, whether they would be murdered or miraculously survive.
Ron was an amazing kid, always smiling, loving life, and a die-hard fan of the Beitar Jerusalem football team. Amit and Shani, twin sisters, always smiling, loving life, and pure souls — one was murdered, and the other survived wounded. Hadar Printz, with a captivating smile and zest for life. Inbar, the incredible girl — just looking at her sparkling eyes was enough. Eliran and Maya, an engaged couple who loved each other so much and had set a date for their wedding. David and Noam, a happy, loving couple who were planning their future together — David was murdered, and Noam survived, injured. Yiftach Twig, a man among men, loved by all, who even in the desperate situation in the container, made sure to save others and act calmly. Ilkin Nazarov, an only child, a kind-hearted person who helped others.
In this journey, as an artist, I let them tell me what they experience through their WhatsApp messages with their parents, friends, brothers, and sisters — messages of farewell to their mom and dad, fear and anxiety, cries for help, and the realization as time passed that they were left alone, without help, and with no chance of escaping alive from the yellow trash container.
Nine of them did not return to their families; seven of them were miraculously saved, some physically wounded by bullets and mentally scarred by the trauma they experienced for many hours in the heat, beneath the trash bags that were thrown into the container during the party, hoping for a miracle that never came.
I think to myself that this is probably how everyone felt in every home that was invaded by the cruel Hamas terrorists in the Gaza border area — hoping for a miracle that never came, and many met their deaths in a brutal and savage way, helpless, as their lives were extinguished forever.
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