PARIS – Shani, May, Ofir, and Moran, four strong Israeli women, arrived in Paris Wednesday morning to tell decision-makers in France the stories of their loved ones, hostages in Gaza, and to win their commitment to bring them home.
The four met with French, international, and Jewish leaders, starting with UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay in an encounter described by participants as especially moving. Later on, they met with President of the French Senate Gérard Larcher, ambassadors stationed in France, including ambassadors for the OECD, and leaders of French and European Jewish communities.
The meeting with Larcher was especially important, as the president of the Senate is formally second to the president in the French political hierarchy. Larcher and the other heads of Senate factions expressed their deep appreciation and respect for the courage of the four women sharing the stories of their kidnapped relatives, pledging that all France stands side by side with Israel in the battle against the deadly terror of Hamas.
‘’Our middle sister Eden celebrated her 24th birthday in captivity. On the morning of October 7, she called us, screaming that an attack was taking place. We heard shots. She was hiding in a vehicle under the bodies of two of her friends. For four hours she pretended to be dead. Then she decided to get out of the car and hide behind a bush,’’ May, told The Jerusalem Post.
May said that Eden “told us on the phone ‘they are catching me,’ and then the line went dead.’’
’We came here to Paris to make the voice of Eden heard. We hope to etch the story of each and every one of those kidnapped in the minds of international public opinion, so that they will remember not just a number, not just a mass of people, a group, but a face, a life, a young person no different than any young people in France, Britain, or Germany,’’ May pleaded.
On Tuesday evening, before the four women arrived, the French Radio J station organized an event at the French National Assembly which included testimony by French Jews whose relatives had been killed or kidnapped by Hamas.
Meeting with French leaders
SEVERAL PARTY LEADERS came, headed by President of the French National Assembly Yael Braun-Pivet, who had just returned from a solidarity visit to Israel. Former French president François Hollande and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti also participated in the meeting. President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne both sent messages following the meeting.
“We have told Mrs. Azoulay, and everybody else we’ve encountered today, that the first thing that must happen is for the Red Cross to visit all the hostages to verify their medical condition. And then, of course, getting all of them back home,’’ adds Shani, Eden’s other sister.All party faction heads agreed there is no place for negotiating a ceasefire with Hamas before the Red Cross gains access to the hostages and assesses their condition. They stressed that all the hostages must be considered equal, regardless of nationality.Ofir lives in Tel Aviv, but her whole family is from Kibbutz Be’eri. She is in Paris to plead for her 38-year-old cousin Itay who lives in Tel Aviv, but who, on that terrible weekend, was at the kibbutz, visiting his mother and grandmother.‘’We have told Mrs. Azoulay and everybody else we’ve encountered today, that the first thing that must happen is for the Red Cross to visit all the hostages. To verify their medical condition. This must be the highest priority. And then, of course, getting all of them back home,’’ adds Shani, the other sister of Eden.
“We heard that sirens were wailing in the Gaza area. I started texting my family at the kibbutz, but we quickly realized something very different was taking place from what we were used to.
‘Pray for us. We are in the shelter. There is no electricity. The TV is not working. We don’t know what is going on around us. We hear shots and explosions outside, I think they are the house of our neighbor Itzik,’ Itay texted his family,’’ Ofir told the Post.
Ofir hopes that the meetings in Paris will increase international pressure to release all hostages. ‘’Itay is also a German citizen. There are many others like him. We are not talking about an ‘Israeli problem,’ but an international one. Anyone who condemns terror must condemn the kidnapping and [work to bring] them back,’’ Ofir said.
“We started our day at UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for education and culture, that promotes peace among nations. As a body laboring for solidarity between peoples, I’m calling on it to help us bring our loved-ones, innocent and peace-loving civilians, back home,’’ implored Moran.Moran is the aunt of 34-year-old Yagev who was kidnapped alongside his 36-year-old wife, Rimon, from kibbutz Nirim. “Yagev and Rimon are such a wonderful young couple,” she sighed. “Both love music and take care of wounded animals. They married just two years ago, and were always together. They were together when they were kidnapped.”