While the repatriation flights of French people from Israel continue, some Israelis or French people are flying in the other direction.
New planes are scheduled to leave Israel this weekend to repatriate the French. Some are going the opposite way: many Israelis, Franco-Israelis and even French people have taken off from Roissy all this week to reach Tel Aviv airport. Because they have to work because they are reservists, or to help a loved one.
The plane is full. Passengers on this Boeing 787 are greeted by the pilot and the flight attendant, who has a little word for everyone. “I have never seen so much pain in the eyes of passengers,” she said. Closed faces, sad eyes like those of Vanessa, in seat 32. She has lived in Israel for thirty years and was vacationing in France when the attack took place.
“I come back because it’s my country, my people, there’s my family.”
Vanessa, on the plane to return to Israelat franceinfo
Vanessa explains that “It’s very difficult to be outside the country, not to be there to protect the children. I couldn’t do much, I’m only a woman and I don’t have a weapon, but at least, psychologically, to be with my children.”
They all have a loved one mobilized by the army
At the front of the plane, row 4, Murielle and Gilles have left their Parisian apartment to help their pregnant daughter who finds herself alone with her three-year-old daughter. “It’s difficult to stay in Paris and wait for events, it’s my mother’s heartexplains the grandmother. I am trying to reach out to them to support them. It’s difficult because her husband was drafted.”
All these passengers tell of a son, a brother, a friend recalled to the army to fight Hamas. Jonathan and Baruk, both Israelis, support the response without illusion. “If I listen to my emotions, I have a kind of spirit of revenge that takes hold of me. As Barack Obama said after the assassination of Bin Laden, ‘Justice has been done’. I hope that we can say the same thing in a very short time.”
“Justice? Yes, but after?”
Erez, on the plane to Tel Avivat franceinfo
Erez, seated three rows away, answers them. “You have to have a plan for the next step. But how can you establish a plan when, on the other hand, there is no nation, no state that respects human rights? So, what is we do ?” The plane is touching down, it therefore opens up to the unknown. When leaving Tel Aviv airport, passengers will encounter soldiers who are leaving to join their unit.