"We don't know how many people we have lost"
Seven relatives of Shira Havron are being held hostage by Hamas. The 27-year-old is asking the German government to do more to secure the release of the hostages. "Not because some of the hostages have German passports, but because this is a humanitarian crisis that has been going on for far too long," she says in an interview with ntv.de. "These are children and old people who are being held hostage by a terrorist organization. This is so terrible that no one who thinks about it should be able to sleep a wink at night."
ntv.de: It is now more than a month since several of your family members were abducted in the Gaza Strip. How many of your relatives are being held by Hamas?
Shira Havron: Seven. We think there are seven at the moment because we know that three of our relatives are dead.
So you are now certain that three have died - not two, as you initially believed?
Yes. I mean, certain is relative. That's what we believe now. The information is constantly changing.
Can you tell us something about the hostages, about your relatives?
There is my aunt Shoshan, my cousin Adi, her husband Tal and their two children Yahel ("Yuli") and Naveh, who are three and eight years old, as well as my uncle's sister Sharon and her daughter Noam, who is twelve. They were all at Kibbutz Be'eri that morning - my cousin and her family and my uncle's sister were visiting, they don't live there. My aunt Shoshan founded a non-governmental organization called "Fair Planet", where she is now the president. She works with farmers in Africa, especially in Ethiopia, and gives them seeds and teaches them how to grow food. That's the kind of woman she is. My cousin Adi is her daughter, she is a psychologist. The children are all absolutely wonderful. Actually, the school year should have started for them now.
You said that you are not sure that there are seven of them. Where did you get your information from? From the government?
No, nothing came from the government. We were informed that the seven people have been confirmed as abducted. But my aunt and uncle were also initially confirmed as kidnapped, and later we found out that they had been murdered. It's hard to rely on information when you know that it can change.
As far as I know, Kibbutz Be'eri is still under investigation. Does your family know when they will be able to return there - and do they even want to?
It's too early for that, we don't know yet. We don't know how it will all end for our family, we are still in the phase of uncertainty. We don't know how many people we have lost, how many will come back. And it's true, the kibbutz is still a restricted military area, you can only go in with the army. Cousins of mine were there and saw their parents' house. I know that my uncle Abshalom - one of the uncles who was murdered - would be the first to go back if he were still there. There is a print shop in Be'eri, one of the largest in Israel, it is still in operation even though it is in a restricted area. He worked there. He was also involved in the administration of the kibbutz. He would be there now. But some people are afraid to go back, and you can't blame them. Others say that we have to look forward and return home. It will take some time, I think.
Your family is closely connected to Be'eri. Were your grandparents the ones who founded the kibbutz?
Yes, Avraham and Rina Havron. The kibbutz was a second home for me. When I was a child, we were there practically half the time. For me, and I suppose for everyone else too, it was like paradise. The surroundings were beautiful and green and the people were welcoming. It was a real community, one of the last real kibbutzim - the property was not private, it was shared. It was just a wonderful place where you felt safe and at home. It was also a source of pride for me, because of my grandparents. My family is very rooted to this place. Many stories, jokes and anecdotes connect my family to Be'eri. And it is also a very successful and prosperous place.
Relatives of hostages have been demonstrating in front of Netanyahu's house for the past four weeks. They are demanding that the government do everything it can to free the hostages. But there doesn't seem to be much support from the government for the hostages' families, does there?
After Black Saturday, many great initiatives and organizations have emerged, especially the Forum of Abducted and Missing Families. At the same time, there is basically no connection with the government. I was asked by the Foreign Minister's office to join a delegation of abducted families. But that was it.
You were in Brussels, spoke in front of the European Parliament and then met politicians.
That was four days after 7 October, and it was organized by volunteers, not by the government.
Did anything come out of this meeting? I mean, some of the hostages have European citizenship, including German citizenship.
Some of my relatives, my cousin's children, also have German citizenship. We gave a list with the names of our family members to members of the European Parliament, and I was told that it would go to the German Foreign Minister. But apart from that, basically nothing has happened - at least nothing that I know of. I have the feeling that they are behind us, they are, but I don't see anything happening. I hope that things are happening in the background that I don't know about, and I don't need to know everything. But a month has passed and nothing has happened.
What do you expect from the German government?
We, I mean all the families of the hostages, we have two messages that we want to pass on. One is to the German government: it is also your responsibility to do everything you can to bring all the hostages home now. Not because some of the hostages have German passports, but because this is a humanitarian crisis that has been going on for far too long. These are children and old people who are being held hostage by a terrorist organization. This is so terrible that no one who thinks about it should be able to sleep a wink at night.
Your second message?
I would like to say to the German public: I know we live in a region that is politically complicated. This is not the first day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is also not just another day in this conflict. My family is made up of people who live by the values of peace and equality. We have Palestinian friends, we support and want peace. It should be clear how terrible this situation is, the situation of the abducted people. Innocent people have been taken from their homes and are now being held as prisoners in an unknown place. Everyone should protest against this, keep the issue on the agenda and talk about it and also tell the story of my family, which is just one part of the stories of more than 240 people held hostage by Hamas. This is not a political situation.
Samira Lazarovic spoke with Shira Havron
Source: www.ntv.de
