won the Navon Award for Best Graphic Novel 2024 in Israel.

On July 18, 1995, three teenagers were killed and around a hundred others injured in a stampede at the Arad Festival, the major music event held each summer in Arad, small town in eastern Israel. I was eighteen at the time and experienced that day firsthand.

In Arad 95, I return to those hours: arriving by bus with friends, shortly before our enlistment in the army; moving through the town’s lawns, courtyards, and streets, filled with thousands of teenagers; encounters with strangers who briefly become part of the moment; and the charged atmosphere of youth, music, and anticipation. This sense of openness and possibility is abruptly shattered by the violence of the disaster.

The story of the Arad Festival has accompanied me for nearly thirty years. In this book, I revisit it through a restrained and precise visual language, attempting to give form to a memory that has remained unresolved. It is my most personal work to date—an effort to confront, reconstruct, and understand an experience that has shaped my life.

Editing: Anat Levin
Design: Michal Magen

Published in 2024
In Hebrew by: Kfula Publishing
In French by: Editions çà et là, under the title: First kiss, last breath