700 days after October 7
The word 'heartbreaking' is so often used, but it doesn't even come close.
Returning to Israel after 10 years, I was expecting the wave of memories and emotions that hit me as soon as the plane touched down.
I also knew this trip would carry a different weight post-October 7, as the team that I am proudly a part of at UIA Australia had worked so hard to mobilise the Australian community to send unprecedented support to Israelis in their darkest hour.
Yet nothing prepared me for what I experienced over the two weeks I just spent in my homeland.
From the moment we landed, as I walked down the infamous path of faces and stickers at Ben Gurion airport wearing my “Bring them Home” t-shirt, I immediately felt the deep scars of a nation still reeling. From there, with every day and every experience we encountered, ordinary Israelis shared their unique stories of loss, fear and sleepless nights.
The word “heartbreaking” is so often used, but it doesn’t even come close.
Yet at every UIA-supported project from at-risk youth at our Youth Villages and Youth Futures programs to trauma support centres, from meeting new olim in absorption centres to Holocaust survivors at Amigour Sheltered Housing, we were met with authentic gratitude so profound it stopped us in our tracks.
People thanked us not only for our financial support, but for simply coming. For showing up. They told us it meant everything that Jews from across the world would leave the safety of their homes to stand with them in a war zone.
This gratitude came from every corner over and above our projects. Every speaker we heard from. Even in taxis we heard, again and again, that the support from Australian Jewry is not an abstract idea. It is the reason they can get up in the morning, the reason they know they are not alone.
They also want to make sure we know we are not alone either as they continuously made sure to ask how we are doing here in Australia – how we are coping with the rising tide of antisemitism that they see on their news each night. Humbling and frightening all at once.
The mission also showed us the strength of Israeli society itself. In Majdal Shams, parents of 12-year-old Tia who survived the Hezbollah rocket attack but was critically wounded, thanked us for helping in the immediate aftermath through our Victims of Terror Fund. Through tears, Tia’s mother shared that they never felt alone because of our support which in turn allows her to support her daughter who is not only still physically and mentally suffering but who is also dealing with her best friend dying in her arms that Saturday morning. As we stood at the impact site, staring at the beautiful faces of the 12 children murdered, a deep sense of emotion and pride overcame me. These are the feelings that I carried throughout the mission. Across the country, from the Golan to the Gaza envelope, we met people whose lives had been shattered but whose spirit cannot be broken.
One of my fellow participants summed it up perfectly when he said, “Israelis are broken, yet unbreakable.” That struck me as the absolute truth of this moment. We witnessed it in the courage of young soldiers, the determination of new immigrants, and the resolve of families rebuilding homes and hearts – shattered and broken –yet defiantly unbreakable.
This journey also reminded me of our shared responsibility, which I feel lucky enough to live every day at work. However, even for me, it is one thing to read about UIA’s impact, to hear from past mission participants and even to speak directly to our team at Keren Hayesod-UIA on the ground. It is another thing entirely to sit with a child in trauma therapy, to see a lone soldier regain hope, to visit an elderly survivor in an Amigour home. The difference we make is not theoretical – it is real, immediate and life-changing. I’ve never been prouder.
And so, after two incredibly emotional but life-changing weeks, I returned home spiritually uplifted and deeply inspired.
I truly understand that our people have suffered a trauma that will take years to heal. Yet their resilience, and the global Jewish solidarity that sustains them, is unbreakable. We will continue to stand with them, to help them rise from heartbreak and rebuild their lives. For me personally, for the organisation I work for and for the Australian Jewish community as a whole, our commitment to the people of Israel is, and always will be, for life.
Carli Dvash is the national marketing manager of UIA Australia.