I wanted to share this video with anyone who might have missed the parents of an American hostage of Hamas speaking at the DNC. Their son, Hersh, is 23-years-old and he was taken hostage by Hamas while attending the Israeli music festival on October 7, 2023. Hersh’s mother spoke first, sharing facts about the hostages still in Gaza, followed by a slow, deliberate description of what happened the day their son was [ripped away from them] taken hostage by Hamas.
Parents Speak At DNC: how their son was taken Hostage
According to his mother, Hersh and several other music festival attendees were hiding together in a 5 x 8 bomb shelter after Hamas started to attack. As they hid in that cramped space, a member of Hamas threw a total of 8 grenades through the opening of the shelter. Hersh bravely stood in front of everyone and blocked the first grenade—the second—the third. He was able to successfully fend off 7 of the 8 grenades.
The final grenade blew off his dominant forearm, according to his parents. Members of Hamas grabbed him, bleeding, and forced him into a pickup truck, which carried their son into Gaza—now a hostage of Hamas.
There were news reports and CCTV video footage showing members of Hamas carrying hostages into a hospital in Gaza for treatment. I’m unable to find the source at this time, but I remember a report that one of the hostages had an arm missing. According to BBC:
The video showed two hostages being brought into the hospital, Gaza’s largest and most modern.
Armed men can be seen in the CCTV video which is date-stamped 7 October. One of the hostages appears to be resisting – the other is shown on a stretcher.
Tell The World What’s Happening In Gaza
Before I share more about Hersh and his parents, I would like to discuss the main reason I’m sharing this video. I watched these parents speak at the DNC live, and as they spoke about the terrorist attack and the Israelis/Americans taken hostage by Hamas, my entire body was tense. They spoke about the effort to free the hostages not being a political issue, but a humanitarian issue.
Then his father said it.
He said the one thing I needed to hear in order for my body to relax.
He said again later on that we need to ‘end the suffering of innocent Palestinians.’ This came after he spoke about a ceasefire and end to the war that’s ravaging the Middle East. He mentioned Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and their regular meetings with the families of hostages. The parents who spoke at the DNC, live in Chicago with their only son, and other families of hostages from all over the U.S. come together with them in D.C. on a regular basis.
I’m both happy and relieved that Kamala Harris wanted them to have that time to speak on the evening of Day 3 of the DNC. It shows that she’s doing something by meeting with these families. These parents of a hostage delivered her message to Democrats at the DNC and at home: “I’m doing everything I can to free the hostages and end the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.” Now we just need some sign of ACTION towards getting the ceasefire. Take action by imposing an arms embargo on Israel. Don’t send another weapon or another dime until Benjamin Netanyahu accepts a ceasefire agreement.
Mainstream media says it’s Hamas that’s holding up an agreement, while Israeli news reports, and 2 senior government officials say, that it’s Netanyahu who says he won’t compromise because he doesn’t want to end the war. An end to the war means going to court on corruption charges for Netanyahu and Israeli citizens voting him out of office.
I don’t know how you get to a ceasefire considering all of the moving parts and one side refusing to negotiate—so I empathize with Kamala Harris working to get a ceasefire. In the end this war cannot continue. Palestinian lives depend on it. I’m so glad that the parents of a hostage spoke at the DNC. Finally, someone spoke to the suffering on both sides and how badly we need to end the war.
Because as Jon Polin said, “Each person is a whole universe.”
