From the Liveblog of
Saturday, August 31, 2024
At Tel Aviv rally, ex-hostage says she can’t ‘start a new life here while lives are ending there’
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
The Tel Aviv weekly protest at Hostages Square is hosted by actor Lior Ashkenazi, who says that no child should have to start a new school year having learned or experienced what has happened over the last eleven months.
Yael Adar, mother of Tamir Adar who was killed defending Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and his body was taken captive to Gaza, says her grandchildren — Tamir’s daughters — will go to school tomorrow for the first time without their father. Her four-year-old granddaughter is in a nursery class that includes some who were killed on October 7, another who was taken hostage, and some whose parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles were killed or taken hostage.
“She’ll see the empty chair of Ariel Bibas,” says Adar. “How do you explain that to children?”
The brother of hostage Idan Shtivi, Omri, speaks at the Tel Aviv protest and addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, himself a bereaved brother of Yoni Netanyahu who rescued over 100 hostages during the 1976 raid on Entebbe.
Shtivi asks how the brother of someone “who gave up his life to rescue hostages — is refusing to save the hostages. When is it Idan’s turn to be free?”
Shtivi speaks about the “huge gap between the courage of the IDF soldiers, their battles and successes, and the lack of achievement on the part of the government. It’s humiliating.”
Released hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog, who returned home after 51 days in captivity along with her mother and two younger siblings, having seen her father and older sister killed by Hamas terrorists, says she is attending the rally to show that “there is life after death.”
“But I cannot describe how difficult it is for me to start a new life here while lives are ending there,” says Goldstein-Almog. “How hard it is to look forward when their faces are before me all the time. How can I begin to process my immense loss when I’m constantly afraid of losing more people? How can I start without telling you about those still in captivity?”
The faces and names of each hostage, those presumed alive and those who were killed in captivity, are shown during the protests as the crowd of thousands call, “All of them, bring them home now!”
Sahar Calderon, a released hostage whose father, Ofer Calderon, is still held hostage, cries as she talks about the impossibility of returning to normal life and school when her father is still held hostage.
“Bibi, I’m turning to you,” says Calderon, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Do you think a 17-year-old can lead a normal life when my father is held captive? You’re betraying the hostages and your country. Please don’t abandon me a second time,” she adds, referring to October 7, when Calderon, her father and younger brother were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Calderon talks about being separated from her father as she was released from Gaza captivity at the end of November, saying he had told her to go out and protest and talked about his fears of dying in Gaza and being forgotten.
“I feel and hear my father deep in my body, I’ll never forget him but I need the help of the country and the government,” says Sahar Calderon.
