Hostage families let down by Wong
“Were you too afraid to face the truth? Or you just couldn’t care less about Jewish people, Ms Wong?” said Michal Keshet.
Michal Keshet didn’t hold back as she addressed Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during an emotional speech on Sunday.
Keshet, whose nephew Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri and their two children, four-year-old Ariel and one-year-old Kfir, were taken captive by Hamas six months ago, was speaking at the Let My People Go rally in Sydney.
Keshet told the crowd how, in January, she visited the Bibas’ family home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, “to salvage memories of happier times”.
“It was the home in one of the Israeli communities that our own Penny Wong refused to go to, with some lame excuses,” Keshet said.
“Were you too afraid to face the truth? Or you just couldn’t care less about Jewish people, Ms Wong?”
Keshet said nothing could have prepared her for what she saw as she entered her family’s home.
“The carnage, the dried blood, the murdered family dog,” she said.
“Every inch of this family house ransacked and vilified with bullet holes riddling the doors. The dried up bottle of Kfir’s and the upside down bed of Ariel’s. No humans could have done this, only monsters of the worst kind.
“I am ashamed that Australia is not doing more,” Keshet continued as the crowd applauded in agreement.
“On the contrary, Australia is back to aiding UNRWA – the same terrorist aid group that has assisted Hamas in celebrating the atrocities, who has kidnapped my family, who has raped, assaulted, and kidnapped my friend’s cousins. Australia is now back to giving this same organisation our money.
“Well, not in my name, Ms Wong. Not in my name, Mr Albanese.”
Keshet pleaded with the world to stand on the right side of humanity and “act together for the immediate and safe release of all the hostages”.
“This is the only way this world will be a decent, humane place to live again,” she said.
“Let my family go, let my people go.”
Rabbi Elozer Gestetner of Coogee Synagogue described Prime Minister Albanese as a prime minister “who is not leading with moral clarity”, while Zach Shachar said a released hostage passed on information about his cousin Naama Levy, who his family last saw in a video being dragged by her hair, in bloodied pants, into a Jeep on October 7.
“They shared that she is wounded in her legs, but can walk,” Shachar said.
“They also shared that she was talking and sharing with them what she has been through after being isolated for a long time. This sign of life gives the family some hope, but it also reminds us that we need to act now and fast. Naama and all the hostages must return home now.”
The event, organised by the Together With Israel group and attended by many Iranians who support Israel, took place just hours after Israel was attacked by Iran’s Islamic regime.
“The war we are having is not with the people of Iran, it’s with the Islamic regime who sent their tentacles of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis to hurt us,” said Ofir Birenbaum from Together With Israel. “We have no gripe with the people of Iran. We love you and thank you for being at every single event, especially this one.”
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