Sharon Adler
Hostages square, Tel Aviv
The terror in the face of the kidnapped Shiri Bibas, with her two children in her arms, Ariel and the baby Kfir, never left my mind. The mind and heart cannot process what the eyes see. Shiri is holding the screaming children, and she is terrified.
How did she get through the first hour, and the hour that followed? What did they eat? The child needs a bottle. Now. And to change his diaper. And to put him to sleep. And there’s no crying, no food, and the guns, the shots, the death, the Arabic, the violence, and the hatred. It’s impossible to even imagine a minute of this horrifying experience without breaking down.
Here I am, in the Hostages square. With my granddaughter. Hundreds of people are watching a large screen, waiting for the return of the three hostages on the list. Three men. The images on the screen are unbearable. The men are skeletal, their eyes sunken, their bones protruding. ‘Muselman’ (A term used among Jewish concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust to describe someone on the brink of death.
Holocaust. Again.
I feel as though we have all been kidnapped because until everyone returns, we are all hostages. They have taken our sense of security, our ability to rejoice without feeling guilty. They have stolen our innocence, the beauty of life, and our belief in peace.
As I hold my granddaughter in my arms, I carry all this weight. She is about the same age as baby Kfir Bibas, two months younger than him. I remember calculating this in horror when I first saw the beautiful baby in his mother’s arms in the video of their abduction.
The catastrophe that befell our country on October 7, 2023, will never be forgotten.
My daughter said to me: “Mom, imagine if I had been kidnapped?” And I choke up. I can’t breathe. Because we have all been struggling to breathe since the disaster happened.
Terror is everywhere, affecting us all.
And I look in admiration at the brave women, the mothers leading the fight to bring the hostages home. They refuse to give up. I see how they live for the moment when their loved ones will return home.
But we are not just victims. Our struggle is not only personal; it is a human struggle against evil and violence. It is a Jewish-Israeli struggle against antisemitism, hatred, and the ignorance of those who do not understand the horror we are facing – the horror of terror.
Despite the pain, I search for the light. I believe we can build a better future. We are all hostages – hostages of hate and violence – but together, we have the power to restore hope and unity.”