Education minister defends blasting music as bereaved mom protested outside his home

Education Minister Yoav Kisch on Monday defended his decision to blast Israeli folk music at his home on Sunday to drown out a protest where Sigal Manzuri — a mother who lost two of her daughters in the October 7 massacre — was calling for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

The incident, which was not the first occasion on which Kisch has played loud music to drown out a demonstration at his home, drew immediate backlash. Eli Albag, whose daughter Liri was released in a January hostage-truce deal after 477 days in captivity, called Kisch “the scum of the human race.”

Kisch said Monday he did not know that Manzuri was speaking at the time, and in a post to X,  Kisch wrote: “For more than a year, protesters have come to the threshold of my home, as if in the name of the hostage families, and cursed my wife and my children with terrible slurs.”

“It’s the same protesters, time after time, and their entire goal is to topple the government. Not freeing the hostages, and not concern for hostages’ families,” he charged.

“I will not be deterred by these routine attacks,” he added, charging that the media “has never covered and will not cover” them.

His statement concluded: “These protests do not hasten the release of one hostage — to the contrary, I’m sorry to say.”

Along with the statement, Kisch included a video that purported to show protesters harassing his wife, with slurs including “scum of the human race,” “traitors” and “disloyal Jews.”

The video, however, was one that was determined by the FakeReporter watchdog group in June to have had its original audio – in which protesters are in fact heckling his wife, including shaming her husband for playing music over demonstrators — replaced with audio in which the taunts are significantly more vulgar and personal.

Protesters gathered outside Kisch’s home in Hod Hasharon on Sunday, as part of a daylong strike and series of nationwide protests calling on the government to end the war in Gaza through a deal with the Hamas terror group to secure the return of all the hostages, living and dead.

Speaking in front of the minister’s house was Manzuri, whose two daughters, Norelle, 25, and Roya, 22, were murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova festival on October 7, 2023.

However, as she tried to speak, loud music drowned out her words.

השר קיש השמיע מוזיקה בזמן שהאם השכולה סיגל מנצורי נאמה בהפגנה מחוץ לביתו • הוא מגיב: "עשו בסיגל שימוש ציני וזדוני, לא היה לי מושג שהיא מדברת בחוץ, ודיברתי איתה אתמול אחרי האירוע. אני שם מוזיקה כי אני לא מוכן לשמוע את הקללות נגד אשתי וילדיי"#ספי_ויניר | @sefiova @yanircozin pic.twitter.com/gn6IUlPbEt

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) August 18, 2025

“Even if you aren’t interested in coming out to [speak to] the people crying out from their heart, at least close the windows. Why play loud music? It’s humiliating,” Manzuri told Ynet after the incident, noting that the family of Ofer Calderon, who was released from Hamas captivity in February, was also present.

“The feeling is that we don’t interest anyone, that we’re speaking to deaf ears. He is the education minister of Israel, and as such, he’s supposed to serve as an example. How can we educate our children when he behaves like this?” she said.

Manzuri noted that she, like Kisch, is a resident of Hod Hasharon, and that the minister “never took the trouble to express his condolences.”

Kisch said he did not know the bereaved mother was speaking when he put on the music, and aimed only to drown out aggressive protesters who harass his family

Army Radio quoted the minister as saying: “They used Sigal in a cynical and malicious way. I had no idea she was speaking outside, and I spoke with her yesterday after the incident. I put on music because I’m not willing to hear the slurs against my wife and children.”

Father of ex-hostage: Kisch, you’re ‘scum of the human race’

The incident drew outrage from Eli Albag, whose daughter Liri was held captive for 477 days before her release in January during the last hostage-ceasefire deal.

“You idiot. Sometimes you need to understand who’s in front of you, who’s coming and what their pain is. You’re the education minister — minister of shame, disgrace of the human race. Scum of the human race. You should be ashamed of yourself. Playing music over a mother who’s mourning her two daughters,” he said in a Channel 13 interview, and went on to use an expletive.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum estimated Monday that some 1 million people — about one in ten citizens — had taken part in protests across the country throughout the day, as protest groups and organizations joined forces to stage a major day of civil disobedience after the cabinet voted earlier this month to conquer Gaza City, despite warnings by top security officials that this would endanger the hostages.

The day of protests came alongside a major strike, which was joined by hundreds of local authorities, businesses, universities, tech companies and other organizations, though Israel’s central labor union, the Histadrut, did not participate.

Of the 251 people whom Hamas-led terrorists abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, 20-22 are believed to still be alive in captivity, and terror groups still hold the bodies of 27 more who have been confirmed dead. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.