Likud MK Gotliv tells clashing relatives of hostages to ‘shut up’ or their loved ones won’t come home

By Ariela Karmel

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4 August 2025, 1:35 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

A relative of hostage Rom Braslavski speaks during a Knesset House Committee meeting in Jerusalem, on August 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Chaos erupts at the Knesset House Committee as Likud MK Tally Gotliv tells those, including families of Israeli hostages, demanding accountability from the government, to “shut up.”

“If Hamas hears what you’re saying, they won’t return the hostages,” she says.

Her remarks come amid an emotional and chaotic meeting in which families of hostages and bereaved families clash with one another during the screening of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad videos of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, both visibly emaciated and distressed after nearly two years in captivity.

Braslavski’s cousin, Adam Hajaj, addresses the committee but is interrupted by bereaved family members who shout over him about the soldiers killed trying to rescue hostages and their opposition to a deal.

“We are at war here, not just for the hostages, but a war of existence,” says Tamar Tshuva, whose brother Barak Davidi was murdered at the Nova music festival. “Anyone who tries to undermine the prime minister today in the war we are in should be ousted.”

“Let me speak. I’m not against you. I didn’t come to ask for much,” says Hajaj. “I came for you to get to know Rom, who you’ll see in the video.”

He adds: “The families of the kidnapped, the families of the bereaved are one people. For those who didn’t understand this, I’m here to say it.”

The room then descends into shouting, including among hostage family members.

Tzvika Mor, father of hostage Eitan Mor and a member of the Tikvah Forum — an organization of bereaved families opposed to a ceasefire deal — says: “Why are you emotionally manipulating us? Hamas will never release my son. [Only military] pressure will bring a deal.”

“I don’t have a good word to say about the Hamas operatives. They are bloodthirsty predators,” says activist Israel Shor, whose brother was killed in an IDF raid on Lebanon in 1973, and who has been campaigning with the families of the hostages and October 7 victims. “But it is the Israeli government that is breaking the hostages. They are being held as prisoners by the Israeli government for the Israeli government.”