Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents call to keep fighting for hostages ‘before it’s too late’
Jon and Rachel say murder of their son and 5 others in tunnel ‘could have and should have been avoided’; Netanyahu repeats claim Hamas ‘turned down’ latest deal proposal
The parents of slain-Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin called on Thursday for the public to keep protesting on behalf of a deal that will enable the release of the 101 people still believed to be held hostage in Gaza.
In a video published on their social media accounts, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin appear wearing the now-distinctive masking tape on their shirts with the number “342,” to signify the number of days that have passed since the October 7 terror onslaught and since their son and many others were abducted from the Supernova music festival. Even after the death of their son, the couple have continued to wear the tape daily to mark time passing for those still being held in Gaza.
“We are still in mourning, but we are also in an emergency situation,” Jon states in the video. “We are speaking on our behalf, but also in the sweet memories of the precious souls of Hersh, Alex, Almog, Ori, Eden and Carmel.”
“Their deaths could have and should have been avoided,” he added. “People in positions of power failed them and failed us as their families. No other family should experience what we are experiencing. We must continue to act to save the remaining 101” — 97 of whom were kidnapped on October 7 and four who have been held in Gaza for a number of years.
Hersh, along with Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Almog Sarusi, was executed in a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah late last month, and his body recovered by the IDF overnight on August 31.
News of their killings just days before the IDF located their bodies sparked deep mourning across Israel and provided even greater fuel to 11 months of protests demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to a deal with Hamas that would see the release of the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and Israel freeing jailed Palestinian security prisoners.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said — including on Thursday — that he is doing everything he can to reach a deal favorable to Israel, blaming Hamas for thwarting talks, while some families of hostages have accused the premier of stymieing a deal with unnecessary demands for political ends.
In the video statement, Rachel Goldberg-Polin said, “We have people whose lives are hanging in the balance, and we don’t want any other family to experience what we are currently experiencing, along with the precious other five that Jon mentioned.”
Watch :
Rachel and Jon Goldberg Polin in a special request ????️????????♥️:
Bring them home ????️ pic.twitter.com/W2758eZFXs— Iris (@streetwize) September 12, 2024
Addressing the many people she said have offered help in recent days, the bereaved mother asked them to: “Keep writing to the White House, keep writing to the prime minister, keep wearing the tape, keep going out and advocating.”
“We have to figure out a way to get these people home before it’s too late,” she continued. “So please, keep doing what you have been doing for all of these days. It’s day 342. Let’s get this to an end in the memory of those beautiful six.”
Netanyahu, meanwhile, reiterated on Thursday his claim that Hamas is to blame for the lack of progress in talks for a deal.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the terror group is “trying to hide the fact that it continues to oppose a deal to release hostages, and thwarts it.”
“While Israel accepted the ‘final bridging proposal’ that the US brought up on August 16, Hamas turned it down, and even murdered six of our hostages in cold blood,” the statement added. “The world must demand from Hamas that it release our hostages immediately.”
The White House said last week that the final bridging proposal it put forth last month included a promise by Israel to withdraw its forces from heavily populated areas along the Philadelphi Corridor. In a press conference a day after the bodies of the six hostages were brought back to Israel, Netanyahu forcefully defended the “strategic imperative” to keep Israeli troops in that section of Gaza that abuts the border with Egypt.
In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas said it had met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha, and that it was ready “for the immediate implementation of the ceasefire agreement based on President Biden’s declaration.”
Meanwhile, a minister with the Likud party admitted on Thursday that military pressure in Gaza is putting the hostages held in the Strip in danger, but still said it represents the best chance of saving them.
Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar told the Haredi radio station Kol BaRama that “there is no doubt that military pressure endangers the hostages.”
“It’s not that we think the hostages are in a good situation,” he said. “Their lives are in constant danger, especially when there is fire close to where they are, or even where they are, and this is the complexity of this war.”
Saying that “we really want a deal and hope there will be a deal,” Zohar added that an agreement has yet to be reached “because we are facing a terrorist organization that is not rational and only understands military power.”
Amid reports that Netanyahu has met recently with New Hope party leader Gideon Sa’ar to convince him to join the government, Zohar said he is “unequivocally in favor” of a unity coalition,” but not at the expense of any of the parties currently in the government.
National Unity chairman Benny Gantz, meanwhile, rebuffed on Thursday calls for a unity government, slamming what he called the divisive discourse emerging from the coalition.
“No one will suspect me of being against unity but I look at what is happening here” and see the government attempting to stymie military service for the ultra-Orthodox while creating a “discourse of hatred” against the army’s leadership, hostages and demonstrators, he said during a speech to the Knesset plenum.
“Then I hear people I really appreciate in the coalition talking to me about unity. What are you talking about?” he asked. “Unity is expressed in actions, and not in the swearing-in of a few more ministers to the government.”
Gantz said it was time for a new national election to “let the people have their say, and establish a government of national consensus that will truly bring unity, trust and real victory in the war.”
Shortly after the outbreak of the war, Gantz — whose party was at the time united with that of Sa’ar — joined Netanyahu’s government to establish a unity government. New Hope split from National Unity in March, leaving the government, and Gantz’s party departed the coalition in June, after accusing the prime minister of refusing to pursue a plan for post-war Gaza.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri has reportedly been pushing the prime minister in recent weeks to expand the makeup of the coalition in order to dilute the influence of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — who has publicly clashed with the ultra-Orthodox party.
Sam Sokol and Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
