REPORT FROM ISRAEL, PART I: I went on a fact-finding mission to Israel via the World Jewish Congress with a dozen other law professors, some Jewish, some not. On Wednesday, we visited kibbutz Nir Oz, site of one of the worst massacres on 10/7, with 47 kibbutz members murdered, 71 taken captive, including children and elderly. During the visit, we saw the kibbutz dining hall, which still had a lingering smell of the dead bodies that were stored in the kibbutz refrigerator until they could be given a proper burial. Outside the dining hall, a sign (see Hebrew sign below) remained advertising a peace demonstration to be held on the evening of October 7 in Be’er Sheba, sponsored by Israeli/Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace. The sign says that “it will never end until we talk” and “we should leave the settlements and return to ourselves.”
Nir Oz is a left-wing kibbutz populated by peace activists. One elderly victim, still held hostage by Hamas, was a long time peace activist with many friends in Gaza. Two days a week he drove Gazans in need of medical care to Israeli hospitals. Palestinians living on the border near the kibbutz were undoubtedly aware of the kibbutz’s peacenik and humanitarian endeavors, but nevertheless after the first and second wave of attacks by Hamas, “civilian” mobs invaded and looted, tortured, and murdered. Indeed, we heard that Hamas had to protect its hostages from the “civilians,” who wanted to murder them on the spot. If anyone in Gaza tried to stop or even dissuade the marauders, I haven’t heard about it.
Going back to the elderly hostage, you can see the remains of his house in the pictures below. We met his daughter, who questioned why Hamas has been unwilling to release elderly, sick, hostages (some of whom undoubtedly are now dead), and small children on humanitarian grounds. After all, it would be good propaganda, and they would still have plenty of hostages for negotiating leverage. The obvious answer is that they know that Israelis are especially haunted by the elderly and child hostages, and Hamas prefers psychological torture of Israelis above other goals.
