Day 657 Of The War: No to Selekzia! Release All of Them At Once
Recently, it has become much harder to keep up with writing my war blog.I don’t want to sound hopeless, but it seems that we (and we are many) only exist when we protest. The other meaningful thing I do is volunteer at the Hostages Headquarters, and there too the atmosphere is beyond bleak. It feels as though whenever there is talk of a hostage deal, everything comes to a halt and people become paralyzed.
Although I attended the huge protest at Habima Square last Saturday to demand an end to the war, and volunteered twice in the dining room at the Hostages Headquarters, I would like this time to focus on a postcard that Zeev (Shoshke) Engelmayer published today. It tackles the most painful issue the families of the hostages are dealing with: the question of who among the hostages will be freed—and who will remain in Gaza.
It brings to mind the terrible choices made in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. In fact, the Hebrew word we use for this heartbreaking decision is “selekzia.” Everyone agrees that, at this point, every surviving hostage is a humanitarian case. (None of them—many of whom are wounded—has received medical attention during their long captivity in Gaza.)
Still, other factors seem to determine who is released first.
The postcard, titled “No to Selekzia! Release All of Them at Once,” shows six “lucky” hostages at the top—free to see the blue sky, green grass, and even a white bird. They are dressed in relatively colorful tops and walk upright. At the bottom, by contrast, we see five distraught men in the dark (still in the tunnels), walking with their heads bowed and their hands behind their backs, as though chained.
This muted postcard contains a spectrum of emotions—from the relief of seeing those who are alive, to the despair of knowing that others remain in the darkness.
Tonight I attended a huge demonstration in Habima Square to end the war and bring back all the hostages. I think that it was the largest demonstration since October 7, hopefully it will translate to actions
