Bereaved father perpetuates commemoration
Yossi Zur's son Assaf was murdered four years ago in a terror attack in Haifa. Now first-of-its-kind exhibition opens in city, documenting photos father took of different memorial sites for terror victims
"The memorialization raises the concept of mutual responsibility and strengthens society ties," says Yossi Zur, the father of Assaf who was murdered four years ago at the age of 17 in a terror attack.
Sixteen more people lost their lives in the attack, which took place on a bus in Haifa during the al-Aqsa Intifada. Fifteen people were killed in the explosion and two more died from their wounds several days later.
Yossi, a Haifa resident who works as a project manager at Amdocs, has been dedicating every free moment in the past few years to make Israeli citizens remember terror attack victims as they remember fallen IDF soldiers.
"I believe there is a terrible discrimination on the moral level between fallen defense establishment members and murdered civilians, and I am doing my best to change the current situation," he says.
Memorial wall outside Sbarro restaurant, Jerusalem (Photo: Yossi Zur)
Zur took upon himself a task which no person had performed in the past, and decided to find and document every kind of perpetuation of terror victims across Israel, from the days of the settlement in the Galilee at the beginning of the 20th century to the recent intifada and the ongoing attacks on the Home Front.
As part of his activities, Yossi photographs and documents monuments and statues across the country, and has so far managed to locate 340 memorial sites.
"Perpetuation strengthens the entire society's standing ability in the face of forthcoming dangers," he says.
The photographs taken by Zur are presented on a website he built under the name "A People Remembers."
Zur bore all the costs, time and many efforts exerted in the project.
"I am asking the public for help in completing the project," he says. "There are still many memorial sites in the country which I have not yet reached in order to document and photograph them.
"This project will live forever, and this is the only place in the State of Israel were the commemoration of terror victims is documented. The soul of terror victims lives and remains with us only through these commemorations."
The project can also be seen at "A People Remembers" exhibition presented at the Castra Gallery in Haifa.
