Noa Argamani Post-Rescue Rave / "Back to Life" Party

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Part of a series on 2023-2024 Hamas-Israel Conflict. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Noa Argamani Post-Rescue Rave, also known as the "Back to Life" Party, refers to an electronic music concert that was held in August 2024 in celebration of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani being freed from Hamas' control in June of that year. Argamani was seen in a viral video on Twitter / X wearing a yellow bikini on top of another man's shoulders, jumping up and down while techno music played. Argamani was kidnapped in October 2023 at the outbreak of the 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas Conflict while at the Supernova Music Festival Attack where Israeli festival-goers were abducted and killed by members of Hamas, including Shani Louk. While many internet users, particularly Israeli and Zionist users, celebrated Argamani's post-rescue rave, others online criticized Argamani. Criticism was predominantly based on the reported loss of innocent Palestinian lives as a result of the IDF special operation to save Argamani and three other hostages, contrasted by Argamani's joy seen in the video. Others noted that Argamani's boyfriend, Avinatan Or, who was also abducted at the Supernova Music Festival Attack, was still in Hamas' control, which again contrasted with Argamani's happiness in the clip. Noa Argamani memes and viral discourse surfaced en masse amid the story's virality, mostly related to the pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist movements.

Background

Noa Argamani's Rescue

On October 7th, 2023, 26-year-old Israeli Noa Argamani was abducted by Hamas amid the Supernova Music Festival Attack. Her partner, Avinatan Or was also abducted on the day among other festivalgoers, some of which were killed by Hamas militants.

Argamani was freed from Hamas' control in June 2024 during a special operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which ultimately resulted in the Israeli military rescuing her and three other hostages, all of whom were captured during the Supernova Music Festival.^[1] CNN, which stated it has "no way of verifying casualty numbers reported by Palestinian officials in Gaza," reported that Gazan authorities said 236 people were killed in the operation, while an Israeli military spokesperson said the casualties were "under 100" and had no information on how many were civilians.^[10]

"Back to Life" Party

On August 23rd, 2024, the Instagram^[2] page @erevtov shared a video compilation of Noa Argamani at her "Back to Life" party in Tel Mond, Israel, which aimed to "celebrate life" and her freedom from abduction.^[1] The video gained over 74,000 likes in four days.

The clips used in the abovementioned video were credited to Instagram user @yaniv_hayat, who shared a slideshow to Instagam^[3] three days later, on August 26th, showing the original photos and videos of Noa Argamani's "Back to Life" party. One video showed Argamani on top of a man's shoulders dancing to the music with her father on top of another man's shoulders dancing with her. A different clip showed Argamani addressing the partygoers from the DJ booth. The post's like-count was hidden by @yaniv_hayat (shown below).

Online Reactions

On August 25th, 2024, X^[4] user @HuntersOfNazis reposted the video of Noa Argamani dancing on a man's shoulders, captioned, "Keep shining bright, Noa! ❤️ WE SHALL DANCE AGAIN! 💃🇮🇱🕺," amassing over 4,300 likes in two days.

On August 26th, X^[5] user @HadiNasrallah shared the abovementioned video, criticizing Argamani and @HuntersOfNazis while referencing the reports of Palestinian casualties that occurred during the special operation to save her. The post gained over 8.4 million views and 29,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Other users, many pro-Israel and pro-Zionist, online continued to celebrate Argamani's party, such as X^[6] user @K0sher_C0ckney on August 26th, 2024, who posted fan art of Argamani, gaining over 4,100 likes in a day (shown below).

On August 26th, Daily Mail^[1] covered the story and posted to X^[7] about it. The tweet amassed viral quotes in the following days. For instance, on August 26th, X^[8] user @primalignity captioned the post, "Lol," presumably highlighting what they perceived as irony in the headline that read, "Freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani holds rave to 'celebrate life' while paying tribute to partner still held in Gaza." In a day, the quote amassed over 14,000 likes (shown below).

Also on August 26th, 2024, X^[9] user @narrative_hole shared a compilation of videos from Argamani's party, writing, "They kiIIеd 200 civilians to get her out of Gaza," gaining over 23,000 likes in a day (shown below).