Minister demands UN envoy ensures Gaza hostages have matzah, wine for Seder night

By Sam Sokol 18 April 2024, 2:20 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Meir Porush arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on September 10, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Ahead of next week’s Passover holiday, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush writes to United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland demanding that he work to provide the hostages in Gaza with matzah and wine for the Seder night.

“Unfortunately, not all of the people of Israel will be able to celebrate the Seder night according to the tradition of their forefathers,” the ultra-Orthodox minister writes.

“133 of our brothers and sisters are not with us and are held captive by the terrorist organization Hamas, which has held them by violent force since the murderous attack on Simchat Torah – October 7, 2023.”

If they are not returned home by the holiday, “we strongly demand that you work to bring [them] matzah and wine… so that they will be able to celebrate the holiday, even symbolically, in the expectation that this will raise their spirits and allow them to endure their difficult situation until their speedy release,” he says, calling such a move “a basic humanitarian requirement.”