Hush Yael

Hush Yael is a graphic representation of the 1979 Nahariya attack, where a group of Palestinian militants raided an Israelie family home when they were asleep, bringing the father; Danny Haran, and his daughter; Einat down to the beach. Samir Kuntar proceeded to shoot the father in the back, then drown him in the ocean while his 4 year old daughter watched. Next, Kuntar killed the girl by smashing her skull against the rocks with the butt of his gun. The mother; Smadar, and the youngest daughter; Yael were able to hide in a crawl space in their home to escape being found by the terrorists. In the process of keeping Yael quiet and revealing their hiding place, Smadar, her mother, suffocated her to death. Samir Kuntar, the leader of the group, was later sentenced to multiple life sentences but was later released on a prisoner swap where he was greeted with a celebration from his comrades.

The artwork and story show how emotional a single story of terrorism can be compared to expressing the amount of deaths by a number, something non-human. While we hear of millions dying by terrorism, we need to realize that every death, and every story, is just as gruesome as the attack on the Haran family.

A 2011 song by Oh, Sleeper describes this scenario with great emotion through the mothers perspective. The lyrics are as follows:

Hush Yael, I hear them coming, we'll hide here until we're safe

Just hold tight to me until they find what they need

Hush little Yael, I hear them leaving for the beach

Where on the stone and sand your sister finds her sleep

Wet your jaws for the world

We're going back to the darkest hours

Where our kind has confirmed

We are the masters of sin and slaughter

On the 22nd day of the 4th month, 1979 warrants a judgement

'Cause he came and he saw

And this coward conquered a family asleep in their home

Rise

Rise

We must rise for the helpless and fight for their justice

So lift your voices high

Higher than the mountains of their spite

We are

We are the fearless, the ruthless, the heralds of our time

So lift your voices high

Higher than the mountains of their spite

We are

We are the fearless, the ruthless, the heroes of our time

She had to watch him pull the trigger in her daddy's back

Then put his face to the waves until he took his last

Then he took her life with the butt of his gun

Four years from when her life had begun

Rise

Rise

Rise

Rise

We are all weavers at the loom of slaughter

But we will rise and make these victims our martyrs

So lift your voices high

Higher than the mountains of their spite

We are

We are the fearless, the ruthless, the heralds of our time

So lift your voices high

Higher than the mountains of their spite

We are

We are the fearless, the ruthless, the heroes of our time

Make him beg for his life

Make him beg for his life!

He made me watch as my family died

He'll never know what it's like

So cut him slow until his soul takes flight

Hush Yael, they found him and they put him in chains

The one who broke our home

Is finally feeling pain

Hush little Yael, I'm sorry your lungs are empty

But in your new home

That man will not be seen

End him slow

End him slow!

Make him feel the rocks that her temple rode

End him slow

End him slow!

End him slow