Article on "The Jerusalem Post"

IDAN MATALON is a Tel Aviv-based video producer who has become famous in Israel and around the world for some of his catchy lip-synching music videos.

When the first siren went off in Tel Aviv last Thursday, Matalon was in the process of fliming a music clip about Tel Aviv in the busy Nahalat Binyamin market. he recalls how in one moment there were about 40 bystanders watching him film, and the next moment, "everything suddenly stopped" and they ran to find a safe place, In 10 seconds, "everything changed."

Having lived in Gan Yavne during Operaion Cast Lead, Matalon says he was "used to the sirens and wasn't afraid. "However, in a split second, Tel Aviv, which for him had always been a "safe, metropolitan city, "suddenly changed.

Matalon is nevertheless impressed by the resilience of Tel Aviv residents. Immediately after the siren ended, he went back to filming his clip and people in the streets went back to the coffee shops and going about their daily routines.

Matalon was at the beach and on the bus during the second and third sirens. On both occasions, he describes how the locals stopped whatever they were doing and calmly, without panic, went to a safe location to seek shelter. Ten minutes later "they went back to their lives and seemed to remain in an upbeat spirit."

for Matalon, it is important that people still continue with their lives so that "the sirens and the rockets do not destroy out days."