Empty chairs
While we recounted our people's story of freedom, there were no seders in the dark dungeons of Gaza, where more than 130 Israelis remain captive after 200 days.
There were a lot of empty chairs at seders across Israel this week.
While we recounted our people’s story of freedom, there were no seders in the dark dungeons of Gaza, where more than 130 Israelis – not all of them alive – remain captive after 200 days.
Those 130 are not just a number. They are human souls, with anguished loved ones who are praying for their return.
Men, women, children and the elderly were all taken during Hamas’s heinous assault on October 7 last year.
They include Noa Argamani, who was celebrating life at the Nova festival before 360 of her fellow revellers were brutally slaughtered. And Naama Levy, who before becoming a tragic symbol of Hamas’ horrific sexual brutality against women, worked in a project for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The 84-year-old co-founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz, Amiram Cooper, who is also a poet and composer, remains in Gaza, deeply missed by his nine grandchildren. As does Chaim Peri, a peace activist who drove sick Palestinian kids to hospitals in Israel.
And then there’s little Kfir Bibas, taken at nine months old and who has spent almost half his life in captivity, alongside his four-year-old brother Ariel and their parents.
The world has failed the hostages.
At best, they are ignored by global media, world leaders and the United Nations or paid mere lip service in statements that mostly criticise Israel and call on it, not Hamas, to lay down its arms.
At worst, and in a shocking display of inhumanity, posters of the hostages, including little Ariel and Kfir Bibas, are being torn down and defaced by heartless antisemitic thugs, as happened on a wall in Melbourne last week.
But the vandals in that incident didn’t factor in our resolve that saw the wall almost immediately restored.
And it is that resolve that we need to call on now more than ever – 130 of our brothers and sisters are counting on it.
The Haggadah stresses the importance of telling the story of the exodus over and over.
Likewise, we need to keep telling the story of the innocent Israelis being held hostage in Gaza, over and over, louder and louder, to ensure they are not forgotten.
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