‘Never again is now!’: Hostages’ families rally ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day
Saturday evening demonstration focus on captives related to survivors of WWII Nazi genocide; anti-government protests held at Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street and nationwide
The families of hostages held in Gaza rallied Saturday night in Tel Aviv to demand a deal, highlighting the plight of captives related to Holocaust survivors ahead of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the organizers of the rally, said the demonstration would be held under the banner “Never again is now,” ahead of the memorial day for the Holocaust, set to begin Sunday evening.
“In the aftermath of October 7, the phrase ‘Never Again’ has taken on an additional, relevant and pressing meaning,” organizers said.
“Speakers will call upon the prime minister and the cabinet: ‘This is the time to fulfill your duty as leaders of the people and ensure ‘Never Again’! Make the right and courageous decision – bring them all home – the living for rehabilitation and the murdered for burial!'” they said.
The rally got underway at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square at 8 p.m.
Speakers were to include: Ronen Neutra, the father of hostage Omer Neutra and son of a Holocaust survivor; Dalit Shtivi, the mother of hostage Idan Shtivi and daughter of a Holocaust survivor; Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of hostage Bar Kupershtein and daughter of a Holocaust survivor; Hanna Cohen, the aunt of murdered hostage Inbar Haiman and daughter of Holocaust survivors; and the Goren family, relatives of murdered hostage Maya Goren, whose birthday falls on Sunday.
The rally comes after Hamas said on Friday it was sending a delegation to Cairo to discuss a hostages-for-truce deal with Israel, hours after CIA Director William Burns arrived in the Egyptian capital, according to Egyptian sources.
With Arab and American mediators pressing intensely for a temporary ceasefire, several reports Saturday said Hamas was prepared to accept the latest proposal, in light of assurances from the United States that there will be a “sustainable cessation” of the war.
Talks have continued for months without a decisive breakthrough. Israel has said it is determined to eliminate Hamas, while Hamas says it wants a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The Biden administration has said Hamas is the only party standing in the way of a deal.
A United States official said the US believed there had been some progress in talks but was still waiting to hear more.
The Axios news site quoted senior Israeli officials who said they saw “early indications” that Hamas could agree to the first stage of the Egyptian-crafted, Israeli-backed proposal for a deal — involving the release of women, children, the elderly and the sick — even without an Israeli commitment to end the war, but with fewer hostages to be freed in exchange for more Palestinian security prisoners.
If so, the Israeli officials expect Hamas to set stricter requirements that could lower the number of hostages it will agree to release on so-called “humanitarian” grounds, and increase the number of Palestinian security prisoners to be freed in return, the news site said.
Anti-government protests
Amid an increasing convergence between the protests of the hostages’ families and the mass anti-government demonstrations that were a weekly event in the months before October 7, with some of the families accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of blocking a deal for political reasons, a separate demonstration calling for early elections was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv.
Organizers called on participants to join with the hostages’ families to rally at the nearby entrance to the Defense Ministry at the conclusion of the anti-government protest.
Thousands were expected to rally at other locations across the country, organizers said.
Two relatives of hostages held in the Gaza Strip were questioned under criminal suspicion by police Wednesday, then released on condition that they do not attend illegal demonstrations, a move that excludes them from the large anti-government protests held weekly in various locations around the country.
Natalie Zangauker, sister of Matan Zangauker, 24, and Shahar Mor Zahiro, nephew of Avraham Munder, 78, were grilled at a central Tel Aviv police station, according to the two and their attorneys.
The summons came days after the two were involved in highly charged confrontations with police during a rally calling for a deal to free hostages held in Gaza for over 200 days and for the dissolution of the government and new elections.
It marked the first time that relatives of hostages have been formally questioned by police, though in the past, family of hostages have been briefly detained at demonstrations on behalf of the captives or against the government, and then released.
Some families, frustrated that after nearly seven months of war their loved ones are still in captivity, have turned against the government, speaking out publicly against the country’s leaders.
The government’s popularity has plummeted since the beginning of the war, leading to growing calls for elections. It has faced blame over its failure to prevent the October 7 massacre, while some have charged it has fumbled when dealing with key matters relating to the conflict.
Polls consistently show that were elections to be held, anti-Netanyahu parties would win a clear majority, with war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz’s National Unity, the largest party.
A Channel 12 survey this week showed 58 percent of voters asked think Netanyahu should resign.
The war began when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people. The thousands of attackers who burst through the border with the Gaza Strip also abducted over 250 people who were taken as hostages into the Palestinian enclave.
Israel responded with a military offensive to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza, destroy the terror group and free the hostages.
