Just a sticker saying “product of now-Arab-occupied Aza” or simply “made in Aza” in Assyrian-script Hebrew letters, translation into English underneath.
You know, it’s just empty. Not even Arab-occupied anymore. Just kind of a DMZ.
You will probably laugh at this, because we were a very observant home, but we all surfed. Almost every day but Shabbos.
Hippy-dippy Hasidic Jewish surfers. I don’t think that community existed anywhere else in the world.
Easily my happiest moments of my life to date were on the beach there.
I was active in the IDF at the time (fortunately air force, so I had no direct involvement). But I showed up in the weeks before to help my parents and extended family pack and get the expensive equipment out of the greenhouses.
I surfed one last time, then pushed my childhood surf board into the ocean and swam back. I have dreams about it sometimes.