Ori Abudi at Coldplay's Athens concert
(Video: Maor Lazar)
Many Israelis attended Coldplay’s concert in Athens on Sunday, but one child—12-year-old Ori Abudi from Be'er Ya'akov—managed to touch everyone's hearts. He was photographed holding an improvised sign with a sticker in memory of Captain Shir Eilat, who commanded the IDF lookouts who were killed and abducted by Hamas-led terrorists from the Nahal Oz base on October 7.
"It was a dream come true for me, pure excitement, and most importantly, the gesture, which was spontaneous, was another way to commemorate Shir," Abudi recounted in a conversation with Ynet on Monday, sounding emotional.
"Chris [Martin, the band’s lead singer] spoke to me right before the end of the concert in front of 75,000 people in the stadium. They saw the sign I raised and Shir’s picture, and it was seen in Israel and all over the world."
Ayelet Eilat, CPT Eilat's mother, addressed the gesture, saying, "We were told about the touching story yesterday, and it fills our hearts. This child is so sweet."
Ori's mother, Anat Abudi, recounted, "We knew the lead singer acknowledges people who raise signs during the concert, so within a moment inside the stadium, we took a cardboard used to hold beers, and when we saw we had no pen to write with, I pulled out my red lipstick and wrote by hand in English, 'I want to sing with you.'"
Despite his young age, Ori is very fond of the rock band. "I grew up with their songs, which I really love; everyone at home listens to Coldplay, and I asked my mom to make my dream to fly to Greece to see the concert come true," he shared.
His mother says he asked to go as a sort of pre-bar mitzvah gift, "and so, we spontaneously flew to the concert on Friday. Ori dreamed of going up and singing with the band — something they do at concerts. We stood in the second row near the stage, and throughout the concert, Ori was on his cousins’ shoulders. He was among the few children at the concert."
The idea to commemorate CPT Eilat—the commander killed protecting her soldiers at the Nahal Oz outpost—came after they happened to stand next to a young woman holding a sticker that read, "In memory of CPT Shir Eilat — your song will play forever."
The group learned the young woman was Nofar, Shir's cousin. "I told her, 'We'll stick the sticker on our sign to make it visible,' and so everyone could see it when Ori was high up," 46-year-old Anat recounted.
"The stars aligned in order to commemorate Shir this way. We were overwhelmingly excited when only a few minutes before the end of the concert, Chris turned to Ori and all the cameras directed at him and the sign he was holding making a powerful tribute to CPT Shir Eilat, who fell defending her homeland. Nofar and I stood there, within 75,000 enthusiastic spectators, hugged and cried."
In a conversation with Ynet, Eilat's mother Ayelet recalled, "We came home late from an event at Shir's school in her memory — a short documentary film made about her as part of a film project, and we were very moved by it.
“We came back feeling positive and proud of Shir. We hadn't calmed down yet, and then the images of this sweet child with the sign and Shir's sticker started coming in. I felt my heart racing with excitement, trying to figure out if we knew the child and what his connection to Shir was, and then we made the connection very quickly — that my niece Nofar was at the concert, and wondered, 'Maybe she’s involved in this?'.
"We didn't think someone would dare to commemorate Shir in such a place, at a concert in Athens that isn’t just for Israelis, and believed people would lower their profile seeing the rising antisemitism around the world,” she added.
“But it was just the opposite — everyone who went to the concert and shouted for the return of the hostages is carrying out an amazing mission for all of us. Ori and his family, together with Nofar and her friends, made everyone see Shir, and it was very exciting for all of us. Thank you for commemorating our hero CPT Shir Eilat."
She further shared that after the band sang their hit song Yellow, Israelis in the crowd began chanting "Bring them home" calling for the release of the hostages — a moving gesture that, according to her and Ori, left them "hoarse from shouting."