They just wanted to have fun

The group of tourists who set out after the colors, scents and tastes of Istanbul looks so happy and vivacious in each of the photos posted to foodie website Beygale by Dudi Califa, one of the site's owners. For this group of people who did not know their fate, it was time to have fun -- their children had grown up and now they had the time, money and freedom to enjoy themselves with a vacation from everyday life.

Califa uploaded photos and videos of the tour group nearly every hour, and they are so hard to watch because of the unbearable ease with which those smiling faces were taken away. Short video clips, full of happiness, wine and good food, which became memorial videos for three of the tour group members. There is Yonatan Suher, celebrating his 40th birthday. "May you keep devouring life as only you know how," his friends wished him, and he showered them with love. And then, in a split second, his own life was devoured by an evil person.

A close-up photo of a particularly delicious-looking breakfast makes viewers feel what food photography usually makes its viewers feel, especially in an age with filters and photo effects: It makes us want to be there in Istanbul with the happy group and to eat the photogenic foods. It makes us want to wander through the stands selling spices, and more than anything, it makes us want to get out there and live life. Just like that group, which asked for nothing more than to enjoy what the Turkish culinary scene has to offer.

I doubt that anyone in the tour group was concerned for their lives before flying, or that the possibility of terrorist attacks in Turkey was raised on the tourists' shared Whatsapp group. I doubt that anyone said upon leaving the last restaurant they visited: "Careful with the Hebrew, okay? Let's keep a low profile." I have a feeling that their conversations were characterized by optimism, that they were confident in their Israeliness and in the nation that was hosting them. After all, every one of us just wants to live. Well, almost everyone.

"Lamb seasoned with coarse salt. To die for," Califa wrote on Friday in a post accompanied by a photo of the meal. He didn't know that for Simha Dimri, Yonatan Suher and Avraham Goldman, this would turn out to be a terrible prophecy of grief and loss.

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