Mother of Hadar Goldin calls for UN Security Council to uphold 2019 resolution on return of missing persons

Leah Goldin, the mother of Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed and captured by Hamas terrorists in Gaza on August 1, 2014, delivers a press briefing at the UN Security Council and urges it to uphold its commitment to returning missing persons to their loved ones.

She is introduced by Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, and is accompanied by her son, Menachem Goldin.

Goldin begins by noting that her son was killed during a UN and US-brokered 72-hour truce.

“For nearly 11 years, my son’s body has been held in Gaza by a terrorist organization that exploits humanitarian frameworks for political gain, and for nearly 11 years, the international community has looked away,” she says.

She recalls that in 2019, the UNSC adopted Resolution 2474, which calls on parties to armed conflict and UN member states to “take all appropriate measures” to search for missing persons and return their remains to their loved ones.”

“The words of the resolution were powerful,” Goldin says, “but words alone do not bring our children home.”

“In the years since its adoption, Resolution 2474 has been forgotten, its principles ignored, its enforcement non-existent,” she says. The very organization that brokered the ceasefire under which Hadar was taken has yet to uphold its own responsibility.

“That is not just a diplomatic failure, it is a moral one,” continues Goldin. “This is not about politics, this is not about negotiations, this is about the right of a mother to bury her son.”

“When the UN passes a resolution, it must mean something. It must be backed by will, by consistency, by action. Instead, we have silence, and in that silence justice has been denied.”

She urges the UN to “enforce Resolution 2474, not selectively, not symbolically, but seriously.

“Demand the return of the missing. Demand accountability. Demand the dignity that every human being deserves in life and in death.”