http://indymedia.org.il
English obitTuesday 30 Jul 2002
author: Mark Bialkowski (mbialkowski@rogers.coMAPSBLOCK)
I received an English obit from the good people behind IMC.il:
>Arbel was with us since the beginning of Indymedia Israel. She was
>20 years old when she died. She is from Kibbutz Dalia up north, to the
>North-East of Haifa. In discussion with her family, who I sadly only got to
>meet at her funeral, it came out that they were all very much still
>ideologically connected with the socialist ideals of the early kibbutz
>movement (this is rare, even on kibbutzim), and backed Arbel's activism
>whole-heartedly.
>
>Before joining with Indymedia Israel, she had been active in many
>social/environmental issues up near her Kibbutz.
>
>She was very positive, charismatic, aggressive in the positive sense, always
>speaking her mind, fighting for her beliefs, but she would listen to other
>opinions in meetings and give people the benefit of the doubt.
>
>She was present at almost any of the anti-occupation demonstrations that
>took place, pushing the limits of the dialogue in situations when it was a
>more conservative demonstration such as Peace Now. (She would sing pro
>Conscientious Objector chants and get groups of people to join in, even
>though the Peace Now coordinators didn't want to speak openly about the
>issue).
>
>She also did political theater. She was working with a group of 'actors' to
>do a street theater about Agenda 21 (which is the environmental agenda being
>pushed for the Johanessburg meeting in the near future), however, she died
>before she could perform it.
>
>Her most 'famous' action was when she threw a pie in the face of Rubin
>Rivlin, the Israeli Minister of Communication, over his backing a bill which
>would aid corporate conglameration/monopolization of the media in Israel.
>
>
>Her funeral was exactly on the one-year anniversary of the pie throwing
>incident.
>
>As to how she died:
>
>The autopsy report found no drugs, no violence, no assumption of suicide
>whatsoever.
>
>Everyone who was with her during her last day and evening say that she went
>out shopping in the afternoon for some clothes, came back to the Indymedia
>office (she lived in an apartment above the office), then she went upstairs
>to rest. When her roommates got home, they saw her door closed and didn't
>want to disturb her. In the morning they found her on the bed, cold.
>
>The medical report says her heart stopped.
>
>Her mother says that her father died of a similar cause three years ago (not
>a heart attack, his heart stopped beating).
>
>My mother is a nurse and tells me that this is known to happen, that it can
>be genetic/passed down in the family, that if one is near a machine one can
>get a shock to start the heart again, but other than that, it is very
>deadly.
>
>Very sad, tragic. She was a good person and doing important work.
>
>If you have any other questions, feel free.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Bryan
Thanks to Bryan for writing this, and to Guy for passing this along. I appreciate it.
My condolences.