OP-ED: Nova festival survivor shows Israel’s unbreakable spirit

"A little more than two years ago Amit Ganish hid under bushes near the Nova site for nine hours with her best friend Zohar hoping and praying the sadistic Hamas terrorists would not discover them."

A little more than two years ago Amit Ganish hid under bushes near the Nova site for nine hours with her best friend Zohar hoping and praying the sadistic Hamas terrorists would not discover them.

In mid-September, the 25-year-old law student got married, proving that life does indeed go on — that she is determined to dance again after that horrible day on October 7/23.

That’s when 400 young people attending the Nova music festival — a celebration of peace — were chased down like dogs and murdered by Hamas.

Even though she has spoken in Toronto and throughout the U.S., we met Ganish at the original Nova Festival site — now a sad but touching memorial to victims, mostly in their 20s, of the 10/7 massacre.

As planes flew by overhead, she spoke to us about how happy she is to have started her new life with Irad and living 30 minutes north of Tel Aviv.

Ganish was one of the lucky ones. Her best friend’s boyfriend — Matan Lior — fell victim to Hamas gunfire when he heroically told them to get into a getaway car that couldn’t fit him. The strapping 35-year-old — whose picture is displayed at the Nova site — provided all the sound equipment at the Nova Festival.

As she spoke to our group of 33 women from Canada on a Friends of Jewish National Fund mission, it became clear to us that Ganish epitomized the resilience of the Israeli people we would continue to see throughout our two weeks in Israel.

We heard that resilience in the words of Shulamit Timsit, a community leader in the northern town of Kiryat Shemona, who led the efforts to evacuate her town when rockets reined down from Hezbollah based in Lebanon.

She herself was evacuated with her three kids to a hotel in Jerusalem where they lived for 1.5 years.

We met her in the northern town on the border of Lebanon where she returned a few months ago. Life has been difficult she reasoned but at least she learned English following 10/7.

”The worst thing for them (the terrorists) is to see our children still smiling,” she told us.

Meanwhile Ganish said when her best friend invited her to the Nova Festival, her boyfriend (now husband) encouraged to go and have fun. He did not go.

One night before Oct. 7 she said she was in her home having Shabbat dinner when she felt in her “stomach and heart something was different.”

She told her mom she felt funny about the festival.

Her mom responded: “Amit don’t worry, go to the festival with your best friend.”

They drove to the festival, arriving around 2 a.m.

She said when she heard the music and saw all the people dancing, her fears quickly vanished..

”We danced all night and we saw the sunrise … it was amazing,” she said.

That was until 6:29 a.m.

She said she realized the party was over when she saw a lot of rockets from Gaza and the terrorists started shooting and shouting “Allah Akbar.”

At first she thought it was nothing unusual because they were so close to Gaza. Still, seeing the terrorists in Israel “didn’t make sense,” she reasoned.

She started to run to the road and got into a small car with eight others when the terrorists in white vans started shooting at it.

When the car stopped, she ran zigzag (so the bullets didn’t hit her) into the forest with her friend while the terrorists shot at them.

”We understood that they wanted to kill me, kill my friends, kill everyone they see,” she told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour three days after the 10/7 massacre (and before Amanpour turned on Israel in a most vile way).

She told us she ran until she couldn’t run anymore, at which point she jumped into the bushes to hide.

During the nine hours she and her friend hid in the bushes, they didn’t make any sound and had no food.

At one point when they saw the coast was clear they ran to another set of bushes.

”That’s how we saved our lives,” she told CNN.

She heard all the shouts, all the screams and the sheer glee of the terrorists as they raped, burned alive and killed Israelis— did “all the terrible things” they did.

Despite the claims of leftist, Jew hating Canadian doctors and other activists that no rapes occurred, Ganish said she heard evidence.

”We heard the young ladies and the men screaming and we heard the joy of the terrorists…they were happy,” she said.

With the limited battery power in her phone, she wrote letters to her mom and to her boyfriend, telling them she loved them—thinking she would not make it.

After nine hours, she heard someone with an Arab accent asking if anyone was there.

Her friend jumped out to find a man named Rami Davidian, a local farmer, who’d come to the area to help rescue those still alive.

He coaxed Ganish and Zohar out of hiding.

Her parents presumed she was dead until they saw her rescue on the Israeli news.

As Ganish finished speaking, Davidian turned up to the Nova site to surprise her.

It was amazing to see them laughing and hugging, considering how he found her two years ago.

From south to north we saw the same resilience, the same sense of community and togetherness.

Hamas proved on that dark day that they are a death cult.

Israelis, however, embrace life and are determined to dance again.