As the hostages suffer, this Yom HaAtzmaut it will be hard to celebrate

So here we are again! Another Passover – festival of freedom – has been and gone and the hostages still languish in Hamas tunnels. Now, as we mark Yom HaShoah and move into Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, this most emotionally fraught of periods in the Israeli calendar is made all the more difficult for many of us by the plight of the hostages. On Yom HaShoah the knowledge of the hostages’ suffering in Holocaust-like conditions felt even heavier than usual. Yom HaZikaron will be more difficult knowing that many hostage families do not have graves to visit as they await the return of their loved ones’ bodies. And many of us will find it hard to celebrate our country’s independence when our fellow citizens are not free.

As for our prime minister, he is unburdened by such concerns. He once again refused a deal that would have seen all the hostages come home in exchange for an end to the war. He claims the war must continue until Hamas is destroyed, but a year and a half in Hamas are still here, and their ranks are growing again as they target desperate Gazans with nothing to lose. Since the start of the war, the prime minister has refused several deals which could have brought hostages home earlier, some of whom were subsequently murdered in captivity. He only agreed to a deal earlier this year when the Trump administration strongarmed him into it, and he broke that one by returning to war before negotiations on freeing the remaining 59 hostages could begin. The unpalatable truth is that for Netanyahu the survival of his coalition trumps all else. His far-right partners are threatening to bolt unless the war continues, and so a partial deal that would enable the return to combat is the best we can hope for from him. At least some the hostages, it seems, are out of luck.

I remember growing up in Zionist youth movements in the UK where my impressions of Israel were first formed. I learned then about an Israel that was partly real, and partly as I would discover when I moved here years later, an idealized version of a complex and flawed place. As Diaspora Jews are apt to do, my counsellors accentuated the good points and left out the bad ones.

 But one thing they said proved to be mostly true. They’d often tell us that Israel never left anyone behind enemy lines. As a country built from the ashes of the Holocaust when Jews were at their most helpless and unprotected, Israel’s commitment to protecting both its civilians and soldiers was a fundamental part of its founding ethos. Over the years there have been lopsided deals in which large groups of enemy prisoners have been exchanged for just a few Israeli soldiers or civilians, and sometimes just bodies. These bear testament to the country’s commitment to the value of mutual responsibility. When the authorities failed to protect the communities and partygoers in the south on October 7 leading to the worst civilian massacre in Israel’s history, the realization that they had been able to live up to this value left many Israelis with a sense of betrayal.

But now that the government has simply chosen to abandon citizens being tortured in tunnels for the sake of political gain, many of us feel and even greater sense of betrayal. For a year and a half, we have watched the cruel spectacle of the hostage families beseeching a government that refuses to be moved. They have offered up their loved ones for public consumption, sharing their hopes and dreams, telling the traumatic stories of their capture, and publicizing harrowing videos from captivity. But Netanyahu has not softened.

To be sure the prime minister has spent his career undermining the norms and values of a country founded to be the only Jewish democracy; from facilitating the entry of Kahanist disciple Itamar Ben Gvir into the Knesset to spearheading attempts to neuter the judiciary, and most recently, attempting to compromise the independence of the Shin Bet.  But his flagrant disregard for the lives of his citizens affects Israelis in a different, more visceral way. Repeated surveys show that a significant majority want the war to end if it means bringing back all the hostages, and that they no longer trust Netanyahu. On Yom HaAtzamaut, it is likely that many Israelis will be wondering how to identify with their country, how to celebrate it, when they no longer recognize their government’s values.

It’s hard to imagine that things will get better in the near future, but it’s clear that for them to do so the hostages must be freed. And then a new government must work to restore our faith in our leaders’ commitment to the people over the narrow interests of a cynical ruler.