Father’s Day hostage vigil at Bondi Beach

“I am a father and I stand here today in solidarity with…”

These words were spoken over and over again on the grass at Sydney’s Bondi Beach over the weekend as a group of Jewish community members and their allies gathered to read the names of the remaining 48 hostages.

Each week, a group of Jewish community members, formed in the early days after October 7, meets to read the names of those who are still being held captive in Gaza. This week, poignantly, they chose to read the names in Bondi, where just hours earlier, a pro-Palestinian group had gathered on the sand to protest.

Now organised by Alexis Aruch and Liron Solomon, the group was originally formed by Naama Levy’s cousin Tzachi Shachar. They have been advocating for the hostages since a few months after the war began.

“A few months into the war, we had a feeling amongst us that the issue of the hostages, and the plea for their return is dying down,” Solomon told the crowd that had gathered, the largest so far. “There are so many things that are happening in our community, in the country, in the world. And our mission, and our only mission, is to advocate for the return of the hostages and for their families.”

Each week a different location is chosen, either in the city or in Sydney’s east to try to reach as many people as possible. Solomon explained that they purposely don’t meet as a rally. Solomon explained that they deliberately organise it as a pop up event to speak to everyday Australians, and “to make sure that the world and Australia remember, with everything that’s going on, that there are still, as of today, 48 hostages held captive in Gaza for more than 700 days now.”

Indeed, many people who were simply walking by the gathering paused to see what was happening, listening for a moment before moving on.

With Sunday being Father’s Day, the group asked fathers and grandfathers to volunteer to read the names.

Nicky addressed the gathering prior to the names being read.

“This week in Israel, their children began a new school year without their Abbas, without their Sabas. They walked through the school gates holding their mother’s hands, a piece of their hearts missing. No daddy there to reassure them, not even a grave to visit, to lay a stone and share a story of new teachers and friends,” she said, before reminding the crowd that this continues to be a humanitarian crisis.

The group heard about Eliyahu, a father and grandfather who was murdered by Hamas and whose body was kidnapped into Gaza, and Muhammad, a Bedouin Israeli who was Muslim who leaves behind 13 children, the youngest of whom was born just one month before he was murdered.

The reading now takes approximately 40 minutes with each hostage’s name read aloud along with information about how they were captured and who they are as a person.

Importantly, as stated by Nicky prior to the reading, on Sunday, like every other day and week, we ask, “Why are they not home?”.

“Please remember our hostages are all of us. They are Jewish Israelis, Arab Israelis, Thai, Nepalese, Tanzanian, Americans. Citizens of many nations, followers of five religious faiths,” she said. “They are human beings. They are loved. We need the living to return home, to heal, surrounded by love. We mourn those no longer alive, and we are waiting to lay them respectfully to rest.

“Forty-eight hostages are not yet home. We stand together to send them light. We stand together to cry, ‘Let our people go. Release our hostages. Now’.”