It was an emotional meeting of the UN Security Council. It was not the diplomats, but the relatives of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas who spoke and remembered them.
Gili Roman came to New York to remember his abducted sister-in-law before the UN Security Council.
Today is the 30th birthday of Carmel Gat, my relative, who has been held hostage in Gaza for 223 days.
With his shirt sleeves rolled up and a determined look in his eyes, the Israeli, who also has German citizenship, tells how the Hamas terror hit his family in Kibbutz Beeri on October 7th. How they took his sister Yarden with her three-year-old daughter and also her husband. How they shot his mother. How they tortured, massacred.
A few days after the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Beeri, Gili Roman stands in front of the rubble of a house.
And Gili Roman is also pained by how quickly the global community accepted these atrocities. “There are no resolutions or actions from this House to free the hostages more quickly.”
“I beg them: Bring my son back!”
No resolution clearly blaming and condemning Hamas for the terrorist acts. But at least the Security Council is listening to the relatives for the first time in this informal meeting. Women like Ayelet Samerano, who has been fearing for her abducted son Jonathan since October 7th.
Do you know where he is? I beg them: Bring my son back!
The relatives are suing
Or Shoshan Haran, whose son-in-law is one of the 133 hostages that their captors are believed to be holding in the Gaza Strip. Without the global community clearly condemning them for what they have done or are currently doing.
Because it is easier to explain Hamas terror as a logical consequence of Israel’s actions, says Roman ARD studio New York on the sidelines of the meeting. He warns: “If hostage-taking is accepted as a tool to sabotage the world order and achieve political goals, then why should it not be used in other forms in other countries?”
The activist has told the story of his sister and her family hundreds of times. Each time he focuses internally on something different. This time it is his now four-year-old niece Geffen.
It has become normal for her that her dolls occasionally hide under the bed while playing when the bad men come. Or when they are looking for their mother.
Geffen’s mother, Yarden, carried her in her arms as she and her husband fled the ramp of the Hamas van that was taking them to the Gaza Strip.
“And Yarden had this choice between life and death. Between staying with her daughter or giving the child to her husband so he could run away with Geffen quicker.”
Yarden was among a group of people released last November after 54 days of isolated hostage confinement. She is reunited with her young daughter and her husband. But there is no trace of her sister-in-law Carmel.
Relatives are calling for international help
Throughout his adult life, the educator Roman has been committed to peace in the region – together with Jews, Muslims, Christians, Israelis and Palestinians. Of course, he doesn’t ignore the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip; it affects him. But he said from day one that if the international community’s response remained so weak, Israel would feel it would not be able to handle the situation with force.
Especially in order to save human lives in the Gaza Strip, clear signals are needed to regain people’s trust in Israel. And that depends on the hostages coming back home.
We must condemn this. We must advocate for their lives. Fight for their release. Despite what we otherwise think. Every other important discussion about the Gaza conflict must not interfere with our strong commitment to the release of the hostages.