Another Passover in Hostages Square

DAYENU! We have been passed over yet again!

Another Pesach and again, we need to shout: There is no time left! These words become truer and truer each day: THERE IS NO TIME LEFT.  Every day, every hour, every minute, hostages in Gaza are gasping for breath, slowly dying of thirst and starvation. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is busy making excuses and boasting of war plans.  Netanyahu, beyond the peak of cynicism, broadcasts a Passover greeting to the people, arrogantly claiming, “We are the generation of victory.” Victory??? Thousands have been killed in this horrible war. Netanyahu dares to speak of the empty chairs at the Seder meal, without once taking responsibility for this calamity.

Seder Night at Hostages Square – families gather. Photo: Nili Bresler

Hamas has said again and again that they want one thing: an end to this war. Yes, they started it. Yes, they are abominable. Yes, they carried out the most gruesome massacre in the State of Israel’s history. Hamas are monsters.  But right now, they are the ones holding our hostages. And they say they will let them all go if we stop the war. It’s not that I trust Hamas. But I do believe international pressure can keep them to their word in this. Today, tomorrow, Netanyahu could announce the end of the war and bring our hostages home. And yet he forges ahead on his path of destruction, sacrificing lives for his own political motives.

I am sure that there is not one Israeli, Arab or Jew, who wants to be neighbors with Hamas. But they are there. Over a year and a half of fighting has not erased them. Fanatics who live in tunnels, fed by hatred and venom, cannot be eradicated by tanks or grenades. And Netanyahu’s own failed policy of appeasement has proven that they cannot be mollified by monetary bribes. That “concept” was brutally shattered on October 7^th.

Seder picnic outside the Nova Tent at Hostages Square. Photo: Nili Bresler

Another year, another Pesach, another Seder night in Hostages Square. Another year more bitter than sweet. Another year when traditional words and phrases take on double meanings. This is the Festival of Freedom, but our hostages, our children, are not free. The holiday that celebrates the exodus from bondage finds our hostages bound, shackled, and starved in tunnels beneath Gaza. Pesach – Passover: Did the powers that be pass over us again this year, ignoring our pleas? Have our beloved hostages been passed over because of political expediency?

Passover should be the Festival of Freedom, but again this year, it is anything but.  Our brothers and sisters are not free.  The Passover story begins with the words:  We were slaves unto Pharaoh… On my hand-lettered sign, the word were is crossed out. We are all slaves until every single one of the hostages is freed.

Yesterday, parents of hostages, Ditza Or, mother of Avinatan, and Tzvika Mor, father of Eitan, sent a letter to Israel’s chief negotiator, Ron Dermer. The letter followed a meeting with Dermer which left the parents in turmoil. In the letter, the parents wrote, “We came out of the meeting with you angry, humiliated, confused, and exhausted… We did not understand from you any effective proposal of how or when you would get our children home. In answer to our queries, you gave an estimate of three to six months, but no action plan.”

Anyone who thinks that our starving hostages have three to six months left is at best deluded, at worst, purposefully blind to reality.

Mor and Or wrote that in the hours after the meeting, “We understood the enormity of the disaster. Those who do not get out in the present small group are abandoned to their fate in the depths of the inferno”.

Soup of Hope: One family prepares matzah ball soup for hundreds at Seder Night in Hostages Square. Photo: Nili Bresler

Over 1,000 families gathered in Hostages Square on Seder night to observe the first night of Passover. Families brought picnic baskets and coolers and pots, and casseroles with all the traditional foods. Each little group sat on straw mats on the ground or on plastic chairs at folding tables, lit by holiday candles. One family set up a huge cauldron, generously serving matzah ball soup to anyone and everyone. “Soup of Hope,” they called it. And yes, the goodness of our people’s hearts may bring some hope. But that little bit of hope is all we have to cling to at this moment. There is no hope to be found in the words or deeds of our government, obsessed as they are with their own struggle to stay in power at any cost.

My little Hostages Square family and I share a seder picnic at our spot in front of the Nova Tent. We spread charoset and horseradish on matzah. We eat karpas and roasted eggs and roasted potatoes… Around us are thousands of others doing the same. Toward the end of the evening, I walk around the square listening to the sounds of Dayenu and other traditional songs. Dayenu is the most meaningful. ENOUGH!  Time to stop the excuses. Time to stop the war. Time to bring the hostages and the soldiers home. Dayenu!