by Pietro Baragiola
Sunday 9 June during the concert of the famous British band, Coldplayheld at the Olympic Stadium in Athens a group of Israeli fans chanted “Bring Them Home!” to support the movement calling for the release of the 116 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The choir began after the performance of the song “Yellow”, one of the band’s biggest hits, and was motivated by the fact that the color yellow (hymned in the song) is today the global symbol of support for the hostages.
This was just one of the numerous gestures of solidarity towards Israel that have directly involved the city of Athens in recent days.
Saturday 8 Junehundreds of social media profiles showed crowds of Israelis dancing and singing in the squares of the Greek capital to celebrate the rescue of Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan and Andrey Kozlovthe four hostages held by Hamas and freed last weekend by an IDF operation.
However, the main emblematic gestures of pro-Israel support involved the Coldplay concert on Sunday and featured the Israeli comedian Guy Hochman and the 12 year old Ori Abudi.
The Guy Hochman accident
Born on October 13, 1988 in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan, Guy Hochman is a comedian with over 420 thousand followers. His eccentric and often borderline performances have brought him both acclaim and criticism from spectators around the world.
To support his country in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hochman arrived at the concert in Athens on Sunday and attempted to jump onto the Coldplay stage wrapped in Israeli flagbut, in the attempt, he fell and broke a rib.
On his Instagram account the comedian commented: “One last step and I’ll be there smelling Chris Martin’s sweat – Here he comes and I’m here making history! – BOOM! – I fell… my rib is gone.”
Coldplay singer Chris Martin, seeing the scene, immediately stopped singing and did not want to resume without first being sure that the comedian was okay. Then he apologized to the public and explained to everyone what happened: “let me tell you what happened. We were about to finish the song when this guy came on stage, but a moment later he slipped and took a really big fall. He probably wanted to be close to Jonny (Buckland, the guitarist) and I understand that. Jonny is very sexy.”
The Ori Abudi cartel
Many fans did not appreciate Chris’s attempt to downplay the pro-Israeli protest but were pleasantly struck, a few songs later, by the singer’s gesture towards the young Ori Abudi, the Israeli fan who he held in his hand throughout the concert a sign with the photo of one of the female soldiers killed by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attack.
Growing up in the Be’er Ya’akov neighborhood, 12-year-old Ori Abudi has always been very fond of Coldplay songs. “I love their songs. At home everyone listens to them and that’s why I asked my mother how pre-bar mitzvah giftto make my dream come true and fly together to Greece to attend their concert” Ori said during an interview with The Times of Israel.
Ori’s mother, Anat Abudi, knew well that Chris Martin was known to always spot fans in the audience holding signs and then interact with them. So, so that his son would be noticed by the singer, Anat took a cardboard used as a beer container and wrote on it with her lipstick “I want to sing with you” (I want to sing with you).
“Ori was one of the few children present and was on his cousins’ shoulders the whole time with our sign raised for Chris to notice,” Anat explained.
This sign, however, soon acquired an even more powerful meaning when Anat and Ori approached a young woman, Nofar Eilatwho held her cousin’s photograph tightly in her hands: Shir Eilat, one of 15 female border monitors killed during the Hamas invasion.
Shir was only 20 years old and an IDF Captain in charge of the base’s lookouts Nahal Oz. According to witnesses, when the kibbutz was invaded by terrorists, Shir continued to serve valiantly, protecting his comrades until the end.
“The photograph that Nofar held in his hand read in Hebrew ‘in memory of CPT Shir Eilat – your song will play forever‘ (“Shir” also means “song”). Struck by those words, I decided to ask the girl if she would like us to attach her photo to the Ori sign to spread an even more positive message in an even more positive way. She accepted, moved,” Anat told the Mako website.
A few minutes before the end of the concert, Chris Martin turned right towards Ori, pointing at him and, at that moment, all the cameras were focused on the little Israeli fan and the sign he was holding in his hand with the tribute to Shir.
“Hey boy! Do you believe in Magic? Because if you believe it, I need you to close your eyes and make something special happen: I need you to create fireworks in your mind and open your eyes again in five seconds. Can you do it for me?” Chris said to Ori.
The boy immediately closed his eyes and the singer began to count down. At the end of the countdown, Ori looked up at the sky and was amazed to see it dozens of fireworks that erupted around the stadium above the 75,000 spectators enthusiastic, including Anat and Nofar who hugged each other in tears of joy.
“It was a dream come true for me. A pure emotion and, above all, a small way to commemorate Shir” said Ori, still emotional, during an interview with the Israeli channel Ynet.
This magnificent tribute has been seen around the world, even reaching Israel where Shir’s mother, Ayelet Eilat, commented saying: “it was a touching gesture and fills our hearts. This baby was really sweet.”
During his interview with YnetAyelet recounted how she and her family had just returned home from an event that Shir’s school had dedicated to her daughter’s memory when they saw the first images of the concert in Athens.
“We hadn’t had time to recover from the emotion when the first photos of this sweet child with Shir’s sign and sticker arrived on social media and on TV. I felt my heart beating wildly” said Ayelet, moved.
“We never thought that someone would dare to commemorate Shir in a concert full of people from all corners of the world, especially in a time where anti-Semitism is spreading more and more. Everyone who went to this event and shouted for the return of the hostages or cheered the fireworks for Shir is carrying out an extraordinary mission for all of us in Israel and it was immensely emotional. Thank you Ori.”
