Bereaved father of hostage to Netanyahu: ‘My son was murdered in a tunnel you built’
In recording from condolence visit, Rabbi Elhanan Danino, father of slain captive Ori Danino, implores PM to stop stirring division and prioritizing his own political survival
Recordings released on Monday reveal a tense and angry conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Rabbi Elhanan Danino, the father of hostage Ori Danino, who was murdered in captivity and his body returned to Israel last week.
Danino accused the prime minister of engaging in “petty and cheap politics,” of emboldening Hamas during his many years in power and of sowing division in the nation. A recording of the conversation, which occurred during a visit over the weekend, was first published Monday by the Kan public broadcaster.
Netanyahu paid a shiva call in Jerusalem to the family of Master Sgt. Ori Danino, an off-duty soldier with the Paratrooper’s Brigade who was captured from the Supernova music festival, after he went back to try to save his friends. Danino was then held hostage for 11 months before he was executed by Hamas. His body was recovered by troops on August 31 from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah along with those of Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alex Lobanov, and Almog Sarusi.
Ori Danino grew up in a Haredi family in the Ramot neighborhood of northern Jerusalem, and as a teen chose to live a more secular life, enlisting in the IDF after finishing high school, a taboo in most ultra-Orthodox communities.
In the conversation with Netanyahu, Ori’s father said that, while he could not speak to the possibility or likelihood of a ceasefire deal, “everything happened on your watch. My son was murdered in a tunnel that you built on your watch.”
“Forgive me, forgive me, but you’ve been in power for many years,” Danino said. “The concrete and the dollars went into [Gaza] on your watch,” he added, a reference to suitcases of cash that Israel allowed for years to enter Gaza from Qatar, and to the construction materials that were used to build hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, which were allowed to enter the Strip.
Danino accused Netanyahu of “sitting quietly for 15 years and not doing anything,” since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, which the prime minister quietly denied.
“You equipped them with swords!” he said, which Netanyahu also denied.
“You equipped them with tunnels and dollars — you didn’t do anything!” Danino added.
The prime minister replied: “Elhanan, I could respond to you, but it’s better that I don’t.”
Sara Netanyahu, who accompanied her husband on the visit, attempted to defend him, saying that he was “very alone” in security consultations, to which the prime minister added, “Alone, against the whole world, against the president of the United States.” To that, Sara added, “and against the IDF officials here,” apparently intimating that the prime minister had been failed by the IDF ahead of Octoberr 7 and/or clashed with security chiefs over the conduct of the war.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Sara Netanyahu told Danino he was saying things that others had told him to say to the prime minister, to which he replied that nobody tells him what to say.
The bereaved father said the prime minister “is responsible for the lives of all of them.”
He said that, while he thanked God for the “miracle” that he was able to bury his son, it was also incomprehensible that such a thing could be considered a miracle. “What situation have you brought us to? A miracle? That I can bury my son whole is a miracle? How did we get here?! What happened to you? Wake up!”
Danino accused the prime minister of being more concerned with his own political survival than with the future of the country.
“Stop with the spin and the nonsense, for God’s sake,” he said. “You’re a leader, you were elected, you were sent to lead. Get rid of all this nonsense… Stop concerning yourself with winning [Knesset] seats, with polls, stop it.”
The bereaved father implored Netanyahu to think about his “Jewish values” and to promote unity among Israelis.
“You people on high have to stop dealing with nonsense and stirring up fights and disagreement. We don’t deserve this land without unity. There will be no rebuilding without this land,” he said. “Shut down your office for 10 minutes a day and think about where your Jewish values are. Shut it down, send everyone out, no phones. Spend time alone with your creator and think, where is God in your picture, where are your Jewish values?”
Danino told Netanyahu that “this disaster happened because of the division and schisms that existed. It’s clear as day that that’s what happened. Don’t concern yourself with petty, cheap politics and spin.”
In a video response issued after the recordings were published, Netanyahu said, “I hear the cries of the families of the hostages who lost the most precious thing of all. My wife and I attend heartbreaking meetings that shatter the heart into pieces.”
Netanyahu added, “I hear, I listen and I don’t judge. I will do everything to bring the hostages back and to win the war.”
Related — Transcript: Ori Danino’s father appeals to Netanyahu ‘on behalf of the hostages still in Gaza’
Speaking to Channel 12 news on Monday evening, Danino said he did not prepare any of his remarks in advance, but he hoped his words would have an impact on the prime minister.
“I always try to speak from the heart and not foster division, because what comes from the heart goes into the heart,” he said. “I greatly hope that some of what I said went into the man’s heart.”
The bereaved father said that he hopes Netanyahu understands that “outside, there is a nation that is waiting for those 101 hostages, to end this terrible thing. That’s what will put this nation back together — to bring them home, to finish this terrible nightmare. I owe it to the rest of the families. As the emissary of my son, I now try to bring together and unify the people of Israel.”
Danino said he did not believe he said anything to the prime minister that the premier had not already heard: “I told him what a lot of people think. To my sorrow, I said this as a bereaved father who has lost his firstborn son.” The father said he was not offended by anything the Netanyahus said to him, although “I thought they’d behave differently in a house of mourning.”
Asked whether he thinks he managed to “crack some kind of wall” in Netanyahu, Danino said “I greatly hope I managed to crack something in the wall… for the sake of the 101 families and for the people of Israel, who must, must unify and reconnect.”
A number of other bereaved family members reportedly refused to speak with Netanyahu during his attempts to make condolence calls following the return of the bodies of the hostages, who were confirmed by Israel to have been killed a few days before their discovery.
Following the murder and recovery of the six hostages last week, it is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF. Four others have been held in the Strip since before the current war.
Netanyahu has been accused of steadfastly refusing to agree to a deal that would see a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for freeing the hostages. The prime minister has accused Hamas of being the one to continuously hinder a deal, and has defended his demand to maintain a military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor — a key sticking point — as necessary to prevent the resurgence of Hamas.
