Interfaith gathering urges peace as Hamas hostage households relate crushing fears

An interfaith convention held in New York Metropolis on Monday urged world leaders to recollect the hostages nonetheless in Hamas custody and to hunt a deal that can in the end see them returned to their households. 

“I hope that our occasion yesterday can encourage different non secular leaders across the nation and world wide to see and communicate to our shared humanity… and see and communicate to the chance that we’ve got as non secular leaders to talk up for what we’ve got in frequent and to be companion who brings individuals collectively and for therapeutic to start,” Rabbi Joel M. Levenson of the Halfway Jewish Heart informed Fox Information Digital. 

“We have seen on this nation an unlucky rise in antisemitism,” Levenson mentioned. “I do know from talking with of us in our group that there is a worry of Islamophobia, however we will communicate to what we share in frequent and listen to one another’s tales and let therapeutic start by honoring these tales.” 

The Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board of New York on Monday offered six relations of individuals nonetheless held hostage by Hamas terrorists after the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, together with one lady who herself had returned from their captivity. The United Jewish Attraction (UJA) Federation of New York hosted the occasion in its headquarters. 

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The households shared their experiences with the media and people gathered: Concern over what state their family members are in whereas Hamas continues to carry them; hope that they’ll deliver the remaining hostages house safely; and concern that the hostages have fallen out of favor with media protection and brought a again seat to anti-Israel sentiments. 

“To this present day, we hope that they are nonetheless alive,” Orna Neutra, mom of American hostage Omer Neutra, mentioned. “We now have not acquired any signal of life about Omer since he was taken, and, in fact, it is a grave concern, and the information may be very disheartening”

“In fact, , we too, are folks that consider that communication is essential,” she added. “We actually, actually hope you are feeling that the world has develop into dominated by the acute, and we actually want to listen to extra of the reasonable voices on all sides… Moderation wants to talk up.”

Among the many group was Aviva Siegel, herself a returning hostage whose American-born husband Keith stays held by Hamas. She described the usually merciless situations she skilled and that her husband continues to be experiencing, relating how the captors wouldn’t give them water and meals once they had run out. 

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“They didn’t give us meals whereas they ate in entrance of us,” she mentioned. “We needed to beg them for water. Beg. Regardless that we confirmed them an empty bottle that didn’t have any water inside.” 

“They didn’t even stick with us as a result of it wasn’t simple to really feel such as you don’t have any oxygen,” she continued. “We had been simply mendacity on the ground and making an attempt to breathe, and I knew and felt that yet another day, I’m going to die.” 

“I keep in mind considering: What is going to occur if Keith, my husband, will die earlier than me, and I’ve to look at him die? What occurred on the seventh was past…” she mentioned earlier than happening to explain atrocities Hamas dedicated on the day of the assault, together with that folks had been burnt alive, and the way kids watched the lads homicide their dad and mom in entrance of them. 

Households of hostages nonetheless in Hamas custody, together with Jewish and Muslim members, shared their tales of heartbreak on Monday. (Fox Information Digital )

“I requested myself what sort of world that is. And I need to ask all people if that is the world we deserve. We do not,” she mentioned. “Each one among us must do every part we will for everyone on the planet, to have a life, to really feel that they’ll drink water, to really feel they’ll breathe, to not fear about easy issues. Simply to get pleasure from life.”

The relations included two Israeli Muslim males – Salem Alatrash, brother of hostage Muhammad Alatrash, and Sha’ban al-Sayed, father of hostage Hisham – who described nice harm amongst a small, tight group of individuals. Alatrash described the household that his brother has ready for him, together with the unimaginable struggling that led to a coronary heart situation for his or her father after he couldn’t “bear it for too lengthy,” in keeping with a translator. 

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“I’m not simply asking to get my brother again, who’s a Muslim,” Alatrash mentioned. “I need to get everybody again. We’re all brothers and sisters, and… they need to all come again.” 

Al-Sayed greeted all the religion leaders current, insisting that “that is what Islam is about” and that he should first know the lads earlier than he spoke to them. 

“I used to be born in Israel,” al-Sayed mentioned by way of a translator. “My household was born in Israel. My prolonged household was born in Israel. All my brothers had been born in Israel, and I’ve been residing there all my life.” 

Leat Corine, cousin of hostage Omer ShemTov, listens as Aviva Siegel, a returning hostage and spouse of hostage Keith Siegel, discusses her experiences in Hamas captivity. (Fox Information Digital)

“After we speak in regards to the Gaza-Israel battle, there is a company right here the place I used to be making an attempt to divide and conquer, dividing the individuals,” he insisted. “The individuals of the Negev, the Bedouin of the Negev and the individuals… come from the identical roots. We’re brothers to 1 one other. It is the identical individuals, and there may be, somebody who’s making an attempt to separate these individuals from each other.”

“After we hear on the information individuals which might be speaking about Gaza and Israel… we do not perceive this as a result of again there earlier than Hamas was in management, and we had been speaking to 1 one other, we had been working with each other in commerce and different enterprise,” he mentioned, claiming that “ever since Hamas got here to energy, it has modified.” 

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“We are able to reside with each other,” al-Sayed argued. “We now have performed so earlier than, and on this equation, there is a company that’s utilizing its personal individuals as leverage and is utilizing us as leverage, and that is fallacious. They’re utilizing their very own individuals, and, sadly, a few of them are dropping their lives due to it.” 

In talking with the religion leaders, Fox Information Digital discovered a repeated want that protesters on faculty campuses educate themselves on the battle and Hamas: Sheikh Musa Drammeh urged the younger individuals to consider what they’re protesting.

Sheikh Musa Drammeh preaches the necessity for unity and peace amongst peoples of various religion as they urge leaders to deliver the remaining hostages house. (Fox Information Digital)

“We’ll by no means, ever low cost the precise to protest,” Drammeh, the founding father of Daylight America, a group activist and interfaith chief, mentioned. “We’ll by no means ignore the plight of the Palestinians. We’ll by no means say the deaths which might be taking place in Gaza must be normalized.”

“Nevertheless, you’ll be able to by no means, ever low cost what Hamas did on Oct. 7, and you’ll by no means, ever rationalize it, and you’ll by no means, ever overlook to know that Israel is the one Jewish nation on the planet,” he continued, noting dozens of Muslim nations exist, a few of that are “a number of the wealthiest” on the planet.

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“For us now to not give Israel what Israel deserves, which is sovereignty, security and safety of its residents – Israel is the one nation the place 4- and 5-year-olds are taught, the very first thing, easy methods to run in seconds to a bomb shelter,” he added. “That ought to by no means occur.”

“That’s the reason it’s incumbent upon me and my spouse and others to ensure that the Muslim world normalizes Israel, and the connection between Israel and the Muslim world will proceed to enhance,” he promised.