'AN AUSSIE FRIEND TOLD ME: IF THERE'S NUCLEAR WAR, COME HERE AND REBUILD YOURSELVES'

'An Aussie Friend Told Me: If There's Nuclear War, Come Here and Rebuild Yourselves'

This week at Ben-Gurion airport: An Australian transplant refuses to leave Israel amid war because 'this is what life here is like,' and an officer readjusts back to civilization after six months of reserve duty

April 18th, 23PM April 18th, 23PM

Gila Levitan, 43, lives in Tel Aviv; arriving from Sydney

What, because my boyfriend is late picking me up, I get to be in the paper?

Great deal, no?

Yes. I'm returning from Australia. I was born there and made aliya 20 years ago. I spent a year here between school and university, then I came back for all the summer vacations during university. I fell in love with the country and I said, okay, we'll make aliya and see what happens – and I stayed.

What's happening?

There's a war. (Laughs) I was a physiotherapist, I did a master's in public health at the Hebrew University, I worked at Tel Hashomer [Sheba Medical Center], and then I decided that the time had come to do what I love. In 2019, I did a tour guide's course and I began working in that all around the country. Then came Covid-19 and then the war. Now I took a small break in Australia, I saw family and now I'm hoping the tourists will return. There's a trickle.

During war there's actually a need for more physiotherapists.

Maybe, but I haven't worked in the field for many years.

What's your preferred place for local trips?

Every place. I really like the Dead Sea area, the connection between the sea and the mountains, the quiet. At the end of the course you have to choose one place and present it for a test. I chose the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, I studied it and I put together a tour of the site. I talk about the architecture, about all the things there. Did you know that there's a Yiddish library in the bus station? That's the biggest secret. There's 80,000 books there, and they also have activities.

They keep saying that the station is going to be torn down.

Yes, but that won't happen. At least not until a replacement gets built. I think they bought land in Holon, but they haven't even laid the cornerstone. So there's no substitute, and in the meantime it's just talk. There are a lot of people around the station who don't like it, and rightly so. It's ugly, there's a lot of exhaust, air pollution. But the fact is that it's also the home of quite a few people. When I describe it, I say that it's like a boat that sank in the sea, and a whole ecological system grew up around it.

Who goes on a tour like that?

It's less tourists, and more local people who want to learn about the place, because it's a bit scary to wander around there alone. There are all the underground floors, where there's a shelter that can hold 80,000 people. I also really like the historical trips for tourists – taking pilgrims to the Old City of Jerusalem, going up to the roof the Austrian Hospice there.

Were you interested in Australian history when you were growing up there?

There's a whole history there of 3,000 years with the aborigines. We learned a little about it, but now it's surfacing more. I have paintings by aborigines at home. My whole house in Israel is covered with things from Australia, and in my parents' house in Australia everything is covered with things from Israel. They're very Zionist Jews, which is why they called me Gila. I try very much to support Israel. My partner was in the reserves for three months. I raised money in Australia and bought a lot of things for his unit. I feel that this half-and-half thing, between Australia and Israel, is very deep.

Has anyone else from your family made aliya?

I'm the only representative. I was at an event of Keren Hayesod [United Israel Appeal] for women in Sydney – there were more than a thousand women there. Someone who was released from captivity spoke there, someone from Kibbutz Kfar Azza. Everyone is supportive and donates. The community is very supportive of Israel. A friend told me: "If there's an atom bomb, you can all come here and rebuild yourselves." My parents were here at the beginning of the war, they were here for the Jewish festivals. They said, "Gila, you can come back with us." I said, "No, this is what life in Israel is like." It's not my first war. I was here at the end of the second intifada and in the Lebanon War of 2006. It's not nice to say, but you get used to it. Like, it's not so easy to be a child here. It's life, and we get used to it and try to help where possible.

There are tourists who are coming to see the battlefields from October 7.

Yes, I did a tour like that. It has to be coordinated with the residents of the Western Negev, and be done sensitively. I understand people's need to be close to the place, to be witnesses to what happened, a little like the trips to Poland. But I wouldn't want that to become all of my work, because Israel is amazing. It's part of the story of Israel, but it's definitely not the whole story. We need to find a way to integrate everything.

Eugene Levit, 43, lives in Nili, in the West Bank; flying to Düsseldorf

What's in Düsseldorf?

I'm meeting a client, doing a demo for him. I'm carrying photographic equipment for sporting events – in this case, field hockey – that creates automatic routing for broadcast using artificial intelligence. The whole field is photographed, and an AI analysis is done of what's happening on the field – Where are the players? Where's the ball? What are the areas of interest? – and then there's an engine that does automatic framing of the game. You don't need a crew, no one has to [be present to] photograph the game.

Hold on – you can create a video of a game without actually photographing it?

No, I have to install a system that consists of a camera and a server that can analyze the data. But then you don't have to be at the field. I can sit on my sofa at home. The system shoots live and can also analyze the image and broadcast what's interesting on the field. Not the whole field, but what's relevant for the audience.

Does this mean that you are removing yourself from the labor market?

In the higher leagues, there's someone who photographs productions live and works with full photographic equipment – that still exists. In the lower leagues, there's no money for a full crew. There are 10 cameras that photograph the events from every direction. It's preferable to bring in a system that can analyze the data and do almost the same thing. Why not?

And the system knows how to analyze the game afterward?

Precisely. In the soccer leagues in Portugal, for example, there is also a system like this that's used to analyze the players and identify future stars for the higher leagues.

Sounds like you enjoy your work.

I like the work, but what I like most is getting home. I used to really like going off for two or three weeks to all kinds of holes that I would never in life get to otherwise. I lived in all kinds of places in India that never saw white people before. I was in Serbia, I saw an attempt to ram people and stone throwing. But I'm a father, I have three daughters. I gradually understood that there are other things that are important to me in life, and to get back to the girls is always fun.

How did you get into this field?

I was always in photography. I studied it at Bezalel [art school in Jerusalem] many years ago, and I always have a camera with me, and I also photograph my daughters. What I do isn't so connected to photography as an art, but I have a technical background and passion. You don't always have to combine everything. From my point of view, taking pictures and going back to them is like revisiting your memory. I even took the camera to reserve duty, and I'll be exhibiting some pictures in the Petah Tikva Museum of Art.

How long were you in reserve duty?

Fron the start of the war until almost two weeks ago. Gaza City, Khan Yunis, the West Bank. I got an emergency callup order twice. I am an infantryman and an officer, commander of a small brigade. I'd never been in the reserves for half a year before, suddenly I was in uniform and cut off from civilization. And I survived. At first I was in the Western Negev [adjacent to the Gaza Strip]... It wasn't easy, and the sights were harsh too. I have always brought a camera to reserve duty, but this time it took me a month before I got back to photography. In the war I felt that I was taking pictures like a soldier, not a civilian. There are things I photographed that can't be shown, from the censorship viewpoint.

What was it like coming back?

I was able to get home quite a bit, because the force I'm in is mobile. I was home once every week and a half or two weeks, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for two days. I don't understand why some people [only] got furlough once every month or two months. There's something screwed up about spending two months in the army, not doing anything, waiting for the moment, training and training and not seeing home. But there's no right or wrong here, because the return isn't so simple.

You need to get used to being a civilian again. At first you're kind of spaced out, everything looks foreign to you, strange. What are people doing in cafés? For me the right thing was to dive back into work, to traveling abroad. That's a framework that gives you a timetable, keeps you busy, and that's excellent. Sitting home and starting to think or to remember things isn't healthy for anyone. I even went back to sleeping well. I only hope there won't be a third emergency callup order.

Do you feel angry when you get back from reserve duty and see people sitting in cafés?

Definitely not. That's the greatness of this nation, which despite all the sorrow is able to continue moving forward, because that's what's needed. I feel angry about other things – political things. I'm a reservist, I'm not a kid in the army, I come with baggage of my own opinions, and that's how it is: There's criticism of the way things are being done. Everyone feels that. My team is mixed – religious, from the territories, secular – whatever you want. And they were all unanimous.

2024-04-18T20:09:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd