Meet the 15-year-old whose Oct. 7 story impacted many
On that terrible Shabbat Ella Shani lost her father in his home in Be'eri. Her grandparents, 80-years-old, were shot but survived, and her close cousin Amit Shani was kidnapped and was released after more than 50 days. Her unique way of describing the horrors has impacted many abroad, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone.
Adi Rubinstein
Israel Hayom
Jan 30, 2024
"In the kibbutz you take your bike and get everywhere fast, taking the shortest route. I remember we always used to say how lucky we were to be born in Kibbutz Be'eri because in order to see a field of poppies all we had to do was just walk behind the house. We thought about how sad it is that people born in Tel Aviv, for example, have to drive an hour to see all that beauty."
On that terrible Shabbat, she lost her father Yitzhak, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists in his home in Be'eri. Her grandparents, 80 years old, were shot but survived, and her close cousin Amit Shani was kidnapped. After more than 50 days he returned to Israel as part of the hostage deal.
"We were sitting in the safe room, begging for someone to come help us. But they abandoned us then, and they continue to abandon our friends from the kibbutz even today," Shani says, adding details about the terrifying moments after she realized Amit had been kidnapped: "He wrote that they broke into their home, wrecking it, trying to break into their safe room. We found out that at some point the terrorists managed to break into their safe room and took him out along with his mother and little sisters. They set fire to the house, left the mother and sisters outside – and went on their way," she adds.
"Our friends were murdered while being held captive by Hamas, and the lives of the others could end the same way every day. As much as we love this country, I can't not say out loud what we're all thinking – we were abandoned there, and we're still abandoned. You see the clothes I'm wearing? These are donated clothes because we left the house with nothing. People with big hearts donated everything we needed. Don't you think this should have been the state's role? No one from the government has spoken to me so far."
She is guarded and articulate, and even when tears well up in her eyes – she immediately pulls together to convey what she has to say. This is also why she has become the face of Israel in the US when it comes to public advocacy efforts. Her list of schedule included, among others, a meeting with someone who became a close friend – Scooter Braun, the man who introduced the world to Justin Bieber and managed artists like Ariana Grande and the Black Eyed Peas. She also had a long heart-to-heart conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger and a tearful hug with Sharon Stone.
With Arnold Schwarzenegger
While Ella can pinpoint the moment she became the unofficial spokesperson for Israel in the US, it seems that even she was surprised by the intensity of the impact. "To tell you the truth I didn't see it coming. It actually started when they came to interview my mother, and she said, 'Interview my daughter'. I was a guest on Rafi Reshef's show for a short interview, and after I traveled to the US on behalf of the captives' families' campaign, they told me I had to give a speech with a teleprompter and be sure to keep to a 3-minute frame to convey the message. I told them I speak without papers and don't need screens in front of me, and people simply listened. I think it's mainly because I always speak from the heart. I'm not robotic, and I am very emotionally connected to what happened. So I also don't need papers – I know exactly what I have to say, I know what I went through."
Q: Doing effective and accurate advocacy is not easy, even for professionals. How do you manage to do it every time?
"Yes, it's very difficult. After I tell my story there's a sense of relief, and I feel like all the air has gone out of me. And then people come up to me and say – okay, now you're meeting other people and you need to do the exact same thing. I tell myself I can't do it, but nevertheless, I succeed in doing it in a non-robotic way. I understand there are so many people in Israel and around the world who don't understand what happened there, don't know what happened, and I have to tell the story over and over because there are many people hearing these things for the first time."
Q: Are there people in Israel today who don't know what happened in Be'eri on October 7?
"I meet teenagers my age because principals invite me to appear before students. I also often come to Captives' Square [in Tel Aviv] to meet people. Teenagers in northern Israel, for example, ask me questions indicating they have no idea what really happened there. From their perspective, we in the south lived in some kind of bubble, where there were constant attacks, missiles, and explosive balloons. They don't understand that what happened that day was an event on a different scale entirely that went beyond what our life was like at Be'eri. That our life there was the best for kids, that I had a perfect childhood, which was destroyed for me and everyone living on the kibbutz."
Q: I assume that when you speak in the US, the situation is much more difficult. There, it takes listeners time to even believe such a thing happened.
"In the American, and global arena in general – we are losing. And I can also explain why. We speak rationally, trying to explain what we do. And in the end, the Palestinians come and tell stories about us killing their children, in videos showing children smeared in red paint. Ultimately they are much more effective than us because they appeal to people's emotions and not rationality, and do it in the simplest way."
The empathy of stars
Ella says that the fact that she tells her personal story as a child around the world helps open hearts and ears among those next to her.
"I tell them that I'm not the government, I'm not the army, I just want you to listen to my story – a girl who loves watching TV shows and playing tennis. Even if I were a Palestinian coming to tell this story to Israelis, they would listen to me. Why would I lie to you about something I experienced firsthand? I lost my father, my family's house, and my friends' houses were burned down, my friends had limbs cut off after they were murdered – and you don't even want to listen to me?
"Hamas spreads fake news all the time, and we just try to do advocacy. The moment I get there and look people in the eyes, everything changes. I always let my feelings out. I'm not acting 'emotional'. I could come and stand before people and tell them how much I miss my dad, and my friends. I see little girls in Gaza saying the IDF made them orphans. I too one morning became an orphan. I woke up, and after a few hours my father was murdered. But it never moves anything, he cares less."
Q: One of the characteristics of your videos is how you speak without getting excited by the presence of celebrities. I assume in another life situation you would be excited.
"First of all, I remind myself they are human beings like you and me, but of course, I cried and got excited in front of some of them. Scooter Braun saw me speaking at an event in the US, then met me in Israel. He told me I turned from a 14-year-old girl into a powerful 15-year-old woman; that after I posted to his Instagram he saw how excited I was, and now standing before him is a strong woman explaining Israel in the best possible way.
"He walked into the room just as I was sitting talking to Tomer Capone, who is the Israeli actor I love most. And then Scooter said 'Hey, you're the guy from 'Fauda', I know you'. And I said to the people around me: What else will happen here? Who else will you bring into this room? I'm between Tomer Capone and Scooter Braun, explaining the situation to them both. Tomer shows me the entire Tel Aviv beachfront from the hotel balcony, and I say 'Wow, within all of this – what an amazing strip of beach, what a beautiful country we have'."
Q: Your meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Wiesenthal Institute in Los Angeles was powerful, and got extensive media coverage. Did you know who he was before you met?
"To tell the truth I didn't know everything about him, but they told me about him and I also read about his past, that his father fought the Nazis. So when we went in to see him, even before the media arrived, I was surprised to discover how he talked about Israel, how much they support us, and how important it is to defeat terror. Afterward, we continued talking as the media arrived, and he conveyed messages of support to the local media as well."
Q: He said there that at age 14 he didn't dare speak at all, while you speak fantastically and convey a message of power, and have shown tremendous courage.
"You know I called Amit by video and told him I'm on my way to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he said 'What business do you have with him?'. I said I'm going to talk to Schwarzenegger about him, about returning from captivity, and Amit said 'Has he even heard of me? Why would he care about me?'. So I said 'Have you not realized that the whole world now knows your name?', and he said 'Really? Surprising'."
Q: There was also a meeting with Sharon Stone at her home.
"I didn't know her, and when we met she asked me 'Why did they kidnap your family members?'. I felt like she was trying to put me in the corner. I said I didn't have a good explanation for why people would do such a thing to others. She asked again why they kidnapped my family, but then she learned that my father had been murdered. She told me she too lost her father at 14, hugged me for a long time, and started crying. She said I'm strong, and that I have to keep being strong."
Q: Do you envision yourself continuing in Israel advocacy? Is it something you'd want to do professionally when you grow up?
"Absolutely not. But I would like to go out now, as soon as Amit can do it, on a tour of the US. Just the two of us. Think about it, a 15-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy telling the whole story of this war. My father was murdered, Amit was kidnapped and released. He can tell everything that happened to him in captivity: How they abducted him, mentally tortured him, told him no one in Israel cares about him. How they held knives to his neck.
"I think that if two young people like us come and tell the story – everyone will listen to us and everyone will believe us. We'll be the 'power couple' of Israel's hasbara efforts. We'll blow people's minds, show them who the people who really live in Gaza are. People who tied him up, dragged him from his home, and did terrible things to him. Anyone listening to Amit's story will truly understand who our enemy is."
Q: You said Amit didn't understand that the whole world knows his story. Now he understands?
"We told him it was a story that interested the whole country. He wanted to learn about it himself and research it alone, without us showing him. He sat at the computer for days, slowly understanding how much his story captivated an entire nation and the world. He needs his time, but I would want it to happen: that we go out and explain to the world what it's like when we see a balloon in the sky, even in Tel Aviv, and think it's an explosive balloon and not just a stray birthday balloon. The world very quickly forgets our personal story. Everyone deals with the war between Israel and Hamas but forgets that first of all they murdered us, kidnapped us, and burned our homes down. They didn't give us a minute to present our perspective: the youth who went through what we went through."
Longing for a Be'eri that is gone
Since Ella moved to Tel Aviv, she hasn't been going to school. She studied math in a special Bar-Ilan University program and is considered a prodigy in the field, but while she has been busy with advocacy – her class has moved on, "and if you miss one lesson, you've had it". Her friends try to return to routine in the schools at the Dead Sea resort they have been relocated to, but she says it's "not really serious".
She talks to her mother on the phone all the time, and her uncles have already taken her to three plays. The speed at which people returned to routine grates on her: "It's weird that people clap and enjoy themselves. I think about how there are people kidnapped now in Gaza, while actors are playing on stage."
Q: Do you miss home, Kibbutz Be'eri? Do you think you'll go back?
"Every day I think about home. I miss riding my bike to Grandma and Grandpa's and eating lunch there. They also told me now that they're at the Dead Sea, they miss having meals with me. When I think about it more deeply, I understand I miss the Be'eri of the past, a Be'eri that is gone forever. My dad won't come back, and I won't be able to go to his house to drink Coke like I always did. The homes there are burnt, I only have memories left of the friends I lost.
"We won't all sit and laugh while I make everyone tea and cookies. Even on October 6, we still laughed like that. So like most residents of the Gaza periphery, I can't commit that one day I'll go back there. Now they want to move us to huts and build a community for us there. We'll have to see if that works out."
Q: You describe Be'eri as a childhood paradise. Maybe your generation will return there and make the place blossom again?
"That paradise is over. When I was 7 or 8, I had nightmares for many nights, of terrorists coming into our home and killing us. My mom would hug me and tell me it was only a nightmare. I asked her if there was a chance it would happen, and she said there are two million residents in Gaza, and while there is a chance that one day they'll get up and walk to the fence to get inside, not to worry because we have a strong army guarding us, and a government. But even in my biggest nightmares, when I'd wake up crying, terrified by the sirens, booms, and smell of smoke around – I could never imagine what happened on October 7. It was beyond any nightmare.
"When I think of that day, I remember what the brave soldier who saved us said when we met: That that whole day he only remembers in black and white, that for him everything happened inside one big darkness. And that's such an accurate description. I think of the grass at the entrance to our home and I distinctly remember it was green, but from my perspective, every time I think of that day – the grass in my memories is always black, or has no color at all."
Ella recalls that whenever rockets were fired from Gaza, her mother would tell her that at the same time, there were children in Gaza just as scared as her from IDF shelling and that war is bad. Today, her own outlook on reality has changed a bit.
"After what happened to my dad, after what I saw as we fled our home, after what Amit told me, after what happened to my grandparents – in my eyes, there are no innocents in Gaza, maybe only newborn babies. They were harassed by both the kids and teenagers, and the kibbutzim were invaded by children who were fed hatred towards me from a very young age, despite me not having done anything to them."
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