“My name is Sahar Kalderon, I am 17, and I came back from [Hamas] captivity after 52 days. I am here to ask you: How dare you go on recess for three months?” Kalderon asked members of the Knesset’s National Security Committee on Monday.
Kalderon was held captive with her family before being released, while her father stayed behind.
The Knesset went to recess Monday for three months, following weeks of criticism from hostage families and protest organizations who said that they should not go to recess during the war and while 115 hostages remain in Gaza.
This is the second recess the Knesset has gone to during the war. Knesset committees continue to meet during the recess, but legislation is much harder to pass.
“My dad is thrown aside in Gaza and has been suffering for 297 days,” Kalderon added. “In a moment, it will have been a full year that my dad has a gun barrel to his head every day and every minute, and you are talking to me about going to recess? How can you do that?”
Physically and mentally abused
“How can I keep on living each day knowing that my dad is in that horrifying place?”
Kalderon said she knows her father is being physically and mentally abused because she was there with him until she was freed in the November hostage deal.
Instead of living her life normally, Kalderon said she “feels guilty every day.”
“I know my father is alive and I know that he can be brought back, so why are they not bringing him back?”