Human Interest: Noa Sorek, Sister of Recent Terror Victim Dvir

[Originally published in mako.co.il and translated by Hillel Fendel]

Noa Sorek, corner image of recent terror victim Dvir Sorek (Credit: mako.co.il & 13news.co.il)

Noa Sorek is in the midst of sitting shiva for her younger brother Dvir, who was murdered several days ago in a Palestinian terrorist stabbing attack. Noa, in her early 20's, was very close to her 19-year-old brother, and spoke to Israel's Channel 12 today.


Asked how she and her family are "holding on" during this difficult period, with hundreds of visitors coming daily to console them, she said, "That's a good description. We still haven't completely grasped what happened, but we're 'holding on' with a combination of crying, laughing, tiredness, and shock, all together."

Noa related to the swift capture of the murderers. "Yes, it's fairly comforting that the IDF has a long arm and was able to get to them so quickly. It mainly means, for me, that they won't be able to kill again. But as far as revenge goes, it's of no interest to me; it won't change a thing. The killers deserve their punishment, of course, but for us, the story is that the security forces should be able to prevent future attacks."

When did you first realize that something had happened to Dvir?
"I was speaking to my mother around 11:30 PM Wednesday night, and she sounded tired. I asked if I had wakened her, and she said that she's just a bit worried about Dvir because he hadn't arrived at his Yeshiva. This lit some alarms for me, because I knew he was in Gush Etzion, and also because it was Dvir, about whom I was always a bit concerned. Around 1:00 AM or something, my mother told me that they know he was on a bus, so I felt better knowing that he hadn't hitched a ride [known as 'tremping,' a common form of transport from Jerusalem to towns in the Shomron, Gush Etzion, and southern Judea]. I went to sleep, assuming that they would find him asleep on the bus or something like that. At 5:00 AM my father came to the door of my apartment in Jerusalem, and I right away understood.
"The truth is that though it was a terrible shock, I wasn't totally surprised – not only because I knew they were looking for him, and that things like this have happened, but also because there was something about Dvir… It sounds a bit like a cliché to say, but I remember telling my friend a few months ago that I was afraid of Dvir enlisting in a combat unit because something could happen to him because he's just too good, too sweet… I think that that's what I felt a little."

Noa Sorek (Credit: mako.co.il)

Did Dvir know that this was a dangerous area? Did you talk about it at home?
"We grew up into this reality and we didn't think of it as 'dangerous.' I grew up in Ofrah [north of Jerusalem, an eastern neighbor of Bet El], I used to walk around barefoot on the paths, and we would usually travel by tremp because that was usually the most logical way to get to Yerushalayim. We knew there was danger, but it wasn't a real issue; we create for ourselves an illusion of security, and sometimes it abruptly breaks apart."

You say that what concerns you is to prevent these things from happening in the future. Do you believe that there's a way to do that?"At present – for sure not; attacks will happen… I think that this shows that something is wrong with our security approach, and the policy that has been leading us for much too long already simply has not proven itself."

We have learned about Dvir that he had the soul of an artist.
"Actually, he used to be active and hands-on, but I believe that in the last few years, he was more drawn to learning, reading and talking. He was fairly quiet, and in fact his friends, when they talk about the amazing conversations they had with him, they talk mostly about how he listened."

It was a topic of much interest after the attack that Dvir was murdered while holding a book by left-wing author David Grossman. When Grossman learned of the murder and its circumstances, and saw a photo of Dvir, he was moved to put down his feelings of sorrow into words. Asked what she thought of the political discourse that developed around this, Noa said, "Anything that leads to love and unity, I'm in favor of. I think that Dvir was less aware than others of this type of talk. His views were relatively right-wing, given that he grew up here; he was holding a book by Grossman simply because we were on a family trip and my father brought along that book, and he read it, enjoyed it, and wanted to bring it to his teachers. I think that things like that are deeper than talk of polarization. In any event, I assume that anyone who would meet Dvir and talk with him a bit, would fall in love with him, no matter what they might have thought about how he looked."

Dvir Sorek (Credit: Courtesy of the family)

Dvir's father Yoav wrote yesterday as follows: "The stories that we are hearing about Dvir, and the event itself, reveal a person who was and still is a very sweet boy, going through the problems of adolescence, and with the sincerity of searching – a unique soul, one who with his simple and humble presence, living the present, brought light to so many, even though he lived so few years…"