ACTIVISM

Shani Avigal

Activist

When five-year-old Ido Avigal was killed by a Hamas rocket attack on the Israeli town of Sderot in May 2021, a photo of the little boy with big brown eyes in his Mutant Ninja Turtles outfit went viral across the internet. But as the world mourned Ido’s brutal death, his mother Shani was lying in hospital with injuries sustained during the same attack, unaware of her son’s fate. In July, Shani, now recovered, and her husband Assaf organized a race in Sderot in Ido’s memory, drawing hundreds of participants. Shani reflected that Ido had left behind three “unwritten wills” — one to make sure people living in range of rockets fired from Gaza would be protected; one to teach his mother and father to be better parents; and a third to bring about his wish for solidarity among the people of Israel. (Photo: Semanario Hebreo Jai)