NEW YORK – The family of 22-year-old New York-born hostage Omer Neutra marked exactly nine months since October 7 in front of an Israeli flag-wielding crowd on the west side of Central Park on Sunday morning, capping off Independence Day weekend by calling attention to their son’s prolonged captivity.
Omer’s parents Orna and Ronen talked about his love of sports, and how his inclination toward leadership in youth groups and basketball led him to deferring his college admission and joining the IDF.
His parents asked attendees to wear sports jerseys instead of the usual “Bring Them Home” T-shirts worn for the Sunday gatherings of the New York Hostage and Missing Family Forum.
Neutra’s parents and younger brother Daniel have gone back and forth between the US and Israel where they’ve done an abundance of media interviews and met with government officials when they could.
“Nine months into this war and independence weekend is about to end,” Ronen said. “Omer, you’ve been a proud dual citizen of both Israel and the United States, you love celebrating Independence Day both there and here. Yet, you’re anything but independent at this moment, held in the most horrific conditions in Gaza.”
Attempting to bring them home
Nine months in and there’s a revised proposal for hostage release on the table which may be the last opportunity to bring you, Omer, and the other hostages back home alive, his father said.
Ronen added that Hezbollah will also stop its attacks if the war ends and the hostages are released.
“Israel’s resilience cannot be measured only by the strength of its military, [but also] by the strength and resilience of its people,” he said, noting that the events on October 7 greatly damaged Israel’s sense of security and trust in the government and army as protectors of the citizens.
“Recent polls show that over 63% of Israel’s public believe that the war must come to an end in return for a comprehensive hostage deal that brings everybody home,” the hostage’s father said.
Former Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy addressed the crowd after the Neutra family.
He said while Israelis will continue to put pressure on their government to “bring them home,” Americans need to put pressure on their own government to use leverage against Hamas to “let them go.”
“Tell your government: ‘You start acting like a superpower, and you start acting like a world leading power, using all available leverage that you have on Hamas and its backers to let them go, because it isn’t happening yet,” Levy said. “And it has to stop, because nine months is far, far too long.”
Dana Cwaigrach, leader of the NY Hostage and Missing Family Forum, told The Jerusalem Post that the group was worried people were not going to show up because of the holiday weekend, but were surprised by the amount that did.
“It really showcases the level of support this community has given to the families of the hostages throughout,” she said. “The fact that nine months later, still every week, community members show up for the families – it’s extremely meaningful. We’re very hopeful a deal will actually take place, and we will continue to stand up here until the very last one of them is home.”
Cwaigrach is organizing a delegation of hostage families and supporters to travel to Washington to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he is slated to address Congress in two weeks.
“We are hoping Bibi will come here to the states saying there is a deal, maybe they’re just finalizing the logistics, but that there is a deal. If there’s not significant progress in the deal, I don’t think he should be here,” she said.
“The following two weeks are crucial,” she added. “And we should all be expecting him, and pressuring him, to make sure he does everything to make sure that this deal happens.”