I was rummaging through my shoebox of cosmetics recently, looking for a lip gloss, when I pulled out an antidote for nerve gas exposure. It was only a few months ago that everyone in Israel was lining up for gas mask kits. It was this past summer; Syria had chemical weapons and the United States was considering a ground attack. What nobody knew at the time was that we were in the twilight of the gas masks. At the end of February, the government stopped distributing masks to citizens.
It’s the end of an era: since the 1990s, Israelis have been able to get a mask for free from government distribution points. My friend Sarai recalls going to elementary school with her gas mask kit in tow. Each student had one, a little gas mask in a little box. With their teachers’ help they decorated the boxes one day in class. Sarai remembers markers, glitter, stickers. “Hiya kef,” she shrugs. “It was fun.”
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From Tablet Magazine
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