Singing songs of peace, women hold subdued Knesset protest to urge hostage deal

Hundreds of women wearing all white are have gathered outside the Knesset building in Jerusalem to sing songs of peace and urge a hostage deal and end to the war.

The demonstration, which activists organized as a quiet, calm display rather than a typically boisterous Israeli protest, has drawn hostage family members along with bereaved mothers, daughters and sisters.

While singing Israeli peace ballads and Jewish prayers for peace, the demonstrators hold up a large banner toward traffic that reads, “Do a deal, stop the war now.”

Efrat Machikawa, niece of 80-year-old Hamas captive Gadi Mozes, says the demonstration is an outlet for those who wouldn’t normally attend a protest to join in the hostage families’ cause.

“We need a million or two million citizens out,” Machikawa tells The Times of Israel, so that “people can see that they can do something rather than stay at home.”

She adds that the choice of all-white clothing represents “hope and purity.”

“Our worry is pure, and our means are pure. We need to bring them [the hostages] back,” she says.