Aunt of ex-captive assails PM after allies show ambivalence to hostages’ fate: ‘Silence is filth’

Speaking before some 1,500 anti-government protesters in front of the IDF headquarters on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, Ruhama Albag, whose niece Liri was released from Hamas captivity in the now-scuttled Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal in January, slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for staying silent as his political allies express ambivalence to the fate of the 59 captives still in Gaza.

“Silence is filth,” says Albag, a literary scholar, paraphrasing a poem by the late Revisionist Zionist leader Zeev Jabotinsky.

She ticks off recent statements, which “the ear refuses to hear,” by Netanyahu’s political allies: Bezalel Smotrich, “the scoundrel known as finance minister,” who said this week that the hostages’ lives are not the top priority; lawmaker Zvi Sukkot, “the new Temple Mount carpet,” who prostrated himself at the holy site “to create another provocation,” and called on Netanyahu to refuse a potential court order to recuse himself; and lawmaker Simcha Rothman, who said “the correct way to free the hostages is to not meet with the families.”

And then there is “the worst statement of all,” she says: “The prime minister is silent.”

Albag accuses the elected officials of disregard for the “mothers and fathers who, powerless, continue to raise children in captivity.”

“Alon Ohel is going blind. Matan Angrest is getting electrocuted by a car battery. Nimrod Cohen’s mother says, with relief, that he is still standing on his feet. It’s doubtful if Matan Zangauker will be able to stand,” says Albag, referring to young men still in captivity.

She reads the names of the other captives still believed to be alive — 24 in all — noting with anger Netanyahu’s attempt to “console us” last year by saying the living captives are “suffering but not dying.”

“End this blood-soaked war,” says Albag. Referring to the national commemoration of the fallen this coming Wednesday, she adds: “If not, this Memorial Day will be your disgrace and infamy.”