Report: Israel envoy to US didn’t attend vigil for murdered hostages after request to speak denied

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog did not attend a Washington vigil on Tuesday memorializing the six hostages killed by Hamas last week after his request to speak at the event was denied, the Axios news site reports.

A subsequent offer for the deputy ambassador to give a speech at the Adas Israel synagogue event was also rebuffed, Axios says.

The report says organizers told the embassy that the ambassador and deputy were welcome to attend the event, and their presence would be recognized by the individual hosting the memorial.

The embassy was reportedly angered by the decision, with deputy ambassador Eliav Benjamin said to tell organizers that he and Herzog would not attend “under these conditions.”

The report cites four sources with direct knowledge of the situation, and notes that the incident came amid growing anger toward the government from many relatives of hostages.

While the Israeli embassy confirms to the outlet that the ambassador and his deputy didn’t attend the event, it denies that the move amounted to a boycott.

“The Israeli embassy, ​​from the ambassador down, deals intensively with the issue of the hostages, including hosting, coordinating meetings and providing professional and personal assistance,” a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy tells Axios. “The ambassador and his staff are in close contact with the families and the hostage families forum and have never boycotted events related to the families of the hostages.”

Several representatives of the embassy attended the memorial, where Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke, as well as a number of relatives of hostages.

The bodies of six murdered hostages were recovered last weekend from a tunnel in south Gaza’s Rafah: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.

An Israeli autopsy found that all six hostages were shot multiple times from close range, indicating they were executed by their terrorist guards shortly before their bodies were found.