Einav Zangauker: Netanyahu’s allies waging campaign to besmirch ex-hostages’ families

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan returned from Hamas captivity on October 13, on Sunday appeared to accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s supporters of waging a campaign against the hostage families and “rewriting the history” of their struggle to win freedom for their loved ones.

Zangauker, who was one of the most outspoken of the hostage family members, published a post on social media in which she accused the “poison machine” of seeking to intimidate ex-hostages’ families.

In her statement on X on Sunday, Zangauker threatened to sue “each and every one” of the people involved in the “poison machine,” and pledged to “keep fighting with all my power until the entire government, and its head, who were responsible for October 7, pay the price — not just for that day but for the two years since.”

“Poison machine” is a phrase typically employed by anti-government activists to refer to the efforts of  Netanyahu’s media allies to shape public discourse and bring down his opponents.

Zangauker was frequently accused by them of upping the ante for the hostages with her robust activism for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and release the people abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war.

“I won’t be silent!” wrote Zangauker, whose son returned as part of the Gaza ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump. “From the day Matan returned home, along with the 19 hostages who survived captivity, the poison machine, with all its mouthpieces in the media and networks, is trying to intimidate the families of the captivity survivors and me specifically.”

“Their aim is clear: They want to rewrite history by besmirching the heroic struggle we conducted, along with millions of Israelis — the same struggle that caused President Trump to force Netanyahu and Hamas into an agreement to end the war and release the hostages,” said Zangauker, alluding to Trump’s approving mentions of the hostage rallies, where he was often lionized.

“The method is always the same — lie-ridden campaigns, bad-mouthing and slander against the families,” said Zanguaker. “For two weeks already I have been trying to shut the windows of my home to protect Matan and his sisters from the predatory machine, to bring back some normalcy and focus on our rehabilitation as a family. And during this time, the poison and incitement are spreading like wildfire. I won’t stand this violence.”

Zangauker did not specify who else she claimed was being intimidated, though Vicki Cohen, mother of released hostage Nimrod Cohen, has also complained in a Haaretz interview of online harassment since her son’s return.

Zangauker’s statement came a day after pro-Netanyahu activist Viktor Shriki, who has lobbied against a state inquiry into the October 7 Hamas onslaught, hinted that Zangauker had misused crowdfunded money.

Without mentioning the activist, Zangauker said, “I conducted my public struggle unscrupulously, through a dedicated and lawfully regulated crowdfunding campaign, not a cent of which went to my personal benefit.”

“The rest of our living expenses were received from the state, like every hostage family that received a stipend until the return of the hostage,” said added. “The lives of my children and me are private — especially Matan, who after two years in captivity is starting a long and arduous rehabilitation process.”

She said the effort to cast aspersions on the anti-government, pro-hostage deal campaign would be unsuccessful.

“The people are not stupid. They see this is an orchestrated, funded political campaign meant to intimidate me from continuing the struggle for the return for all the deceased hostages” — 13 of whom remain in Gaza — and [to intimidate] all the October 7 families from the demand to find the truth about the October 7 debacle, and those responsible for it, via a state commission of inquiry,” said Zangauker.

Zangauker regularly delivered anti-Netanyahu tirades at protests she helped organize around the country, especially at the IDF headquarters’ Begin Road entrance. These rallies were typically louder and more critical of Netanyahu than the Hostages and Missing Families Forum’s central rally at the nearby Hostages Square, where Zangauker has also spoken.

The statement came a day after Shriki, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said a video of Matan’s return home revealed that Zangauker, previously a resident of Sderot near the Gaza border, was now living in a north Tel Aviv high-rise.

Without citing a source, Shriki claimed this information came “amid growing public criticism” of the fact that Matan launched a crowdfunding campaign for his rehabilitation after Einav had raised some NIS 2 million ($608,800) in a separate crowdfunding campaign to support her activism over the past two years, in addition to her government stipend.

The activist did not provide evidence that Zangauker was involved in financial impropriety, or even explicitly accuse her of it.

Shriki, a publicist, handles communications for a group called Justice Forum, which was established earlier this year and opposes a state commission of inquiry into failures surrounding the October 7 Hamas onslaught.

As part of his activism, Shriki in March published a list of families who lost loved ones in the attack and who he said were opposed to such a commission — which Netanyahu has rejected on the grounds that it would be formed by the judiciary, which his government seeks to weaken. A number of families listed later said they did support a state commission — Israel’s highest investigative authority — and demanded their names be removed.

That same month, Shriki and three women from the Justice Forum met with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana at the parliament, while families affected by the Hamas onslaught who support a state commission said they were refused an audience with Ohana. The meeting came weeks after violence erupted at the parliament when families demanding a state commission were denied entrance to the plenum gallery during a discussion about forming the commission.