The Words They Left Behind Racheli Palant-Rozen, co-author of If You're Reading These Words
On January 22, 2024, an anti-tank missile and RPG were fired at buildings where IDF forces were stationed in Gaza. 21 soldiers were killed.
I remember that morning well.
I was working at the time in the Kan 11 newsroom, and the reports of a terrible incident in the Strip began rolling in. As accustomed as I was to receiving devastating news, to maintaining my composure and getting on with the work, that morning, I broke.
From before dawn, we in the newsroom began searching for the stories behind the names, tracking down a phone number for a wife, a mother, a brother—so we could give them the honor they deserved and hear about these 21 fallen soldiers before we were swept away by the next wave of news that arrives, in a country like ours, at a dizzying pace.
And slowly, to each of those names, a face was added. A smile. Children who would never see their father again.
I remember that day well because I remember the moment the editor said: Okay, we’re done. He gestured at the show’s lineup, already full. We had 10 interviews lined up, and even that was pushing it.
I tried to argue. And I made myself a promise: that I would always do my best to start with the families no one knew about, the ones who had lost a child that everyone had already forgotten, the ones who perhaps didn’t speak Hebrew well enough, or whose phone numbers weren’t easy to find. That we would remember all of them.
That promise became a guiding principle in the writing of the book If You’re Reading These Words.
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