We are used to reading David Grossman – his books and texts have long since become properties of the Iron Sheep in Israel. But hearing him sing – we haven’t had that yet. When the acclaimed author was asked to write a letter to one-year-old Kafir Bibs, who is still being held hostage in Gaza, he decided to dedicate to him an old lullaby, which he used to sing to his children – and perform it himself – for the first time in his life.
“I like to sing, but alone,” says Grossman. “I’m not a professional singer, I’m not even a professional singer.”
But here you wanted to sing. Why?
“Let them hear, let them remember that we have children there.” Linoy Miller, the singer who sang with Grossman is the cousin of Ariel and Kafir Biebs. “I thought that maybe a lullaby would speak to his heart. It’s a song that I loved and that we used to sing here to our children – ‘There’s a small lamb in the fold’, by Peña Bergstein. It fits the sweetness of Biebs’ little children,” says Grossman.
“Even a singer who is a bad singer like me, if it will help in the slightest to the fact that first of all the attention will be directed to the problem, so that they will be tangible for a few seconds in the memory, I have done my part”, he explains why he decided to sing. Indeed, the members of the international initiative for the release of the kidnapped children, led by Oved Yehezkel, hope that the music video will continue to exert pressure in Israel and abroad to release the children.
“People said and wrote that there might be no one left to save. I refuse to put up with that,” adds Grossman.
Kfir Jordan Bibs Shahtoofim Baza | Photo: Ovda David Grusman
Believes in dialogue between two peoples
Grossman, a father who lost his son Uri killed in the Second Lebanon War, has rarely spoken since October 7. In the 111 difficult days that have passed, his thoughts begin to take shape in the new reality.
The Biebs family that was kidnapped to Gaza Photography: fact
As the senior representative of the peace camp, did the idea of peace, the idea of coexistence die on October 7?
“No, I don’t think he’s dead. He must have suffered a severe, even fatal blow, but I want someone to come and prove to me that he has a better idea than trying to maintain or create a dialogue between two peoples who today despise and hate each other. In a paradoxical way, perhaps Because of the extremity of the situation, perhaps we will find ourselves, to our surprise, closer to the realization of this idea of the two states.”
Didn’t this massacre cause a shock in your conception, in your perception of the reality here?
“He caused great shock and pain and also the feeling that my life’s dream was drowning in the sea. The thing I tried not to see was the intensity of the hatred towards us. The intensity of the hatred here in Israel and the intensity of the hatred abroad.”
The world’s progressive left has simply gone completely wrong.
“His mind got confused because he makes a mistake and he doesn’t understand that you can criticize, but you can’t deny the right to exist.”
David Grossman in the studio
Was the concept of the peace camp wrong in retrospect?
“I think there was less acceptance with the extremism of the Palestinian position towards us, with the place of religion in their lives. I think we come more soberly to future negotiations.”
You wrote a few days after October 7 that the government, the government and the prime minister betrayed the citizens.
“They were entrusted with something precious like no other, and this is the State of Israel, the state of the Jewish people. They betrayed this idea, simply betrayed this idea. And for that they will be punished.”
Did you find a language mistake?
