A special commemoration event was held at Beit Hanna, a cultural center in Tel Aviv, in memory of Yael Gilad, Michal Meidan-Avrahami, and Anat Rosen-Winter, murdered at the center's Cafe Apropos in a terrorist attack in March 1997.
Up till today, the victims of the attack had not been memorialized in Beit Hanna itself. This is the first time the center has confronted its tragic past.
At the Beit Hanna event, where 20 years ago Cafe Apropos was located, three palm trees were planted n the compound's yard, with a plaque on each tree bearing the name of one of the attack victims in memoriam.
Attorney Zvi Rosen, Anat's father, said, "20 years ago, Anat sat with her six-month-old daughter, Shani, in the Apropos Cafe, here in Beit Hanna to celebrate Purim.The moments of happiness were brutally cut off when a savage terrorist detonated an explosive charge on his body and Anat lost her life, shielding her little daughter and saving her life.
"The pain of her mother's death, our daughter Anat, is a constant pain.How old she should have been today and how good it would have been if she had lived and enjoyed her daughter and her family.There is indeed no limit and it is difficult to define the pain of her absence."
Dr. Tamar Gilad, Yael's mother, said, "Friday, March 21, 1997, on the eve of Purim, it was a sunny spring day. Three young women: Michal, Anat, and Yael arrive at the historic building of Beit Hanna, then order coffee at Apropos and get settled in the yard.A cup of coffee, a salad, a touch of a hand, the beginning of a sentence, the pleasant blinding of sudden sunshine and a powerful explosion that put an end to three beautiful and bright flowers in full bloom.The Apropos cafe has been closed for a long time, but life continues to flow, and maybe that's the way it should be.Our families have no choice but to thank Roni Duek and Yoav Kadmon who, of their own initiative and sensitivity, caring, and vision, decided to preserve the vicitms' memory."
Shai Avrahami, Michal's husband, added, "The pain, the sadness and the terrible sense of missed opportunity remain, accompanied by the family and the circle of people who knew Yael, Anat, and Michal - every day of our lives and wherever we turn.We hope that the general public will stop for a moment, think and consider what it means."
"Yael, Michal, and Anat, who found their deaths in the terrible attack that took place here, are symbols of powerful and independent women who were only looking to do good," said Roni Dueck, a social entrepreneur and owner of Beit Hanna. "Setting plaques bearing their names in front of Beit Hanna, which all through the years was a stronghold of brave and strong womanliness, does honor to the place and the women who lived and acted here."
On Friday, March 21, 1997, around 13:40, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb hidden in hand luggage at the entrance to Cafe Apropos in the Beit Hanna building at Ben-Gurion Boulevard and Adam Hacohen Street in Tel Aviv.The three young women killed were in their early 30s, one of them in the third month of pregnancy and another with her baby in her arms.
About eight years after the attack, the terrorist Ibrahim Ghaneimat, one of the leaders of the Hamas "Zurif squad," who was responsible for the attack, as well as other terrorist attacks, was captured.