Families of US hostages in Gaza plead with Americans: Don’t forget your fellow citizens

Families of US hostages in Gaza plead with Americans: Don’t forget your fellow citizens
Ruby Chen, left, whose son Itay Chen, 19, was killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body taken to Gaza, poses for a portrait with his son Roy Chen. (AP)
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Updated 07 June 2024
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Families of US hostages in Gaza plead with Americans: Don’t forget your fellow citizens

Families of US hostages in Gaza plead with Americans: Don’t forget your fellow citizens

WASHINGTON: Jonathan Dekel-Chen dreams of the moment when his abducted 35-year-old son, Sagui, is reunited with his wife and three young children, including a daughter born two months after the devastating attack on Israel that initiated the war.
Ruby Chen longs to recover the remains of his 19-year-old son, Itay — a soldier who Israeli intelligence says was killed in the Oct. 7 attack — so that he can be buried and his “soul” finally given “a place to rest” in accordance with Jewish practices.
For many Americans, the Israeli-Hamas war is seen through the daily reports of Israeli ground incursions and airstrikes in Gaza and warnings of a looming famine. There are college campuses riven by protests and great uncertainty over ceasefire prospects.
But the families of the Americans taken hostage are laser-focused on one thing: their loved ones. They fear that with all the tumult of the war, Americans often forget about their fellow citizens who remain missing. They’re doing whatever they can to make sure they aren’t forgotten and to keep pushing to get them — or their remains — back home.
“For most of us, we are doers. So we wake up in the morning and we say, what are we doing today? What’s on the agenda?” said Ronen Neutra, whose son, Omer, a soldier, was among those taken. “What can I do to make sure that my son will come back home today?
The families were in Washington this week for meetings with US government officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose Justice Department is investigating the deaths and kidnapping of Americans at the hands of Hamas. The meetings came at a sensitive time as the Biden administration endeavors to get Israel and Hamas to commit to a ceasefire deal to end the eight-month-old war.
Speaking as a group Wednesday to The Associated Press, the families recounted their shared sadness, angst and uncertainty but also their hopes for a resolution that would result in the release of scores of hostages, including their loved ones. Eight Americans are believed to be held by Hamas, including three who were killed.
The three-part proposal announced on May 31 by President Joe Biden calls for a “full and complete ceasefire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages — first, women, the elderly and the wounded and later, all remaining captives, including male soldiers like Neutra, who was ambushed and pulled from a tank on Oct. 7.
“The only way they are going to emerge alive from these tunnels is through some sort of negotiated agreement with the devil, which is Hamas,” said Dekel-Chen, whose son was kidnapped while protecting his kibbutz, Nir Oz, which endured a disproportionate toll of murders and hostage-taking by Hamas.
“Hamas clearly has to be forced to or coerced to enter negotiations and complete them,” he said, and must decide whether it’s about “perpetual warfare and perpetual suffering of its own people” or about “some better future.” The Israeli government, for its part, must “stay the course” and “put aside any kind of narrow political interests” for the good of the country, he said.
That won’t necessarily be easy, given the possibility that a ceasefire deal would shatter Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition and make him more vulnerable to a conviction in his corruption trial.
Netanyahu says he is committed to bringing the hostages home, but also says he won’t end the war without destroying Hamas. He and hard-liners in his coalition fear a full Israeli withdrawal before reaching this goal could allow Hamas to claim victory and reconstitute itself.
The meetings with American officials were the latest in a series of sit-downs that began last fall, shortly after the Hamas attack in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages.
So much has changed since then.
The resulting Israeli assault on Gaza has displaced most of the territory’s population and killed over 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel has drawn global criticism, with a UN court ordering Israel to halt its offensive in the southern city of Rafah, while American universities from Columbia to Stanford have been convulsed by protests.
In Israel, thousands have protested the government, criticizing Netanyahu over his approach to the war and demanding he do more to bring back the roughly 80 hostages believed to be alive, along with the remains of 43 pronounced dead. Many hostage families have been at the forefront of the protest movement.
The American hostage families were measured in discussing the Israeli government’s approach, placing the onus more on Hamas.
And they say the warm embrace they have received from US officials exposes a disconnect with the general American public, which they consider to be more apathetic to their plight and ignorant of the fact that so many hostages remain in captivity.
“I think there’s also a lack of knowledge,” Chen said. “I think the majority of the USpeople are not aware that on October 7th, this was also attack on the United States.”
Compounding the sadness eight months into the war is a steady drip of somber Israeli government announcements of additional hostage fatalities — most recently on Monday, when the military declared four hostages who’d been kidnapped on Oct. 7 as now dead. Adding to the pain, the four men had been seen alive in videos released by Hamas, meaning they died in captivity, possibly from Israeli fire.
Chen spent months hoping his son, an NBA-loving soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was alive only to learn earlier this year that he had been killed.
“He was taken hostage even though he was killed. Who does that? Savages. Who takes dead people as bargaining chips?” he said.
Andrea Weinstein received similar news after the Israeli government in late December disclosed the deaths of her sister, Judy — previously thought to be among the living hostages — and her husband, Gad Haggai. Weinstein, a teacher with a creative spirit who used puppets to help students find their voices, was on a morning walk with her husband when the attack unfolded, her sister said.
Their bodies remain in Gaza.
Optimistic feelings come in cycles for Omer Neutra’s mother, Orna, who said she could not have imagined eight months ago that the family would still be in the same position. She is hopeful but also guarded.
“October 6, it was a different life,” she said. “Nothing is the same for us.”


Erdogan ally floats Turkiye constitutional amendment to let him extend his tenure

Erdogan ally floats Turkiye constitutional amendment to let him extend his tenure
Updated 40 sec ago
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Erdogan ally floats Turkiye constitutional amendment to let him extend his tenure

Erdogan ally floats Turkiye constitutional amendment to let him extend his tenure

ANKARA: The main political ally of longstanding Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that a constitutional amendment should be considered to allow the president to run again in elections set for 2028.
After his re-election last year, Erdogan is serving his last term as president unless parliament calls an early election, according to the constitution. He has ruled Turkiye for more than 21 years, first as prime minister and then as president.
“Wouldn’t it be a natural and right choice to have our president elected once again if terror is eradicated, and if a heavy blow is dealt to inflation and Turkiye secures political and economic stability,” said Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is allied with Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP).
A constitutional amendment to secure Erdogan’s ability to re-run in the presidential elections should be considered, he said in a parliamentary speech to MHP lawmakers.
Bahceli, a staunch nationalist, rattled Turkish politics last month by suggesting that the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) could be allowed to speak in parliament if he announces an end to the group’s insurgency.
Some analysts said the shock suggestion might be motivated by an AKP-MHP desire to win the support of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, parliament’s third-biggest, for a constitutional change that could boost Erdogan’s prospects in 2028 elections.
A constitutional change can be put to a referendum if 360 lawmakers in the 600-seat parliament back it. An early election also needs the support of 360 MPs.
AKP and its allies have 321 seats while DEM has 57.


A tiny village in India where Kamala Harris has ancestral roots is praying for her victory

A tiny village in India where Kamala Harris has ancestral roots is praying for her victory
Updated 05 November 2024
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A tiny village in India where Kamala Harris has ancestral roots is praying for her victory

A tiny village in India where Kamala Harris has ancestral roots is praying for her victory
THULASENDRAPURAM: The temple reverberated with rhythmic Sanskrit and Tamil hymns, as a Hindu priest held a flame before the god. As this tiny South Indian village gathered to pray for Kamala Harris, a gaggle of reporters jostled for space and camera angles.
There's little to distinguish the village of Thulasendrapuram from any other rural community in Tamil Nadu, except its connection to a woman who could become America's first leader with South Asian roots.
As millions of Americans vote, Harris has people rooting for her from thousands of miles away in a village surrounded by rice paddies and coconut trees, where her mother's family has ancestral ties. They talk about her at the local tea shop. Banners and billboards bearing her face are seen throughout the community.
“Our deity is a very powerful God. If we pray well to him, he will make her victorious,” said M. Natarajan, the temple priest that led the prayers in front of the image of Hindu deity Ayyanar, a form of Lord Shiva.
Harris’ maternal grandfather was born in the village, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) from the southern coastal city of Chennai, more than 100 years ago. As an adult, he moved to Chennai, where he worked as a high-ranking government official until his retirement.
Harris has never visited Thulasendrapuram and she has no living relatives in the village, but people here still venerate the family that made it big in the U.S.
“Our village ancestors' granddaughter is running as a U.S. presidential candidate. Her victory will be happy news for every one of us,” Natarajan said.
The village's sudden fame has helped bring money into the village. Recently, construction began on a water storage tank with funds donated by a local bank. Village residents say it will carry a plaque with Harris’ name.
Harris’ late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India. After moving to the U.S. to study, she married a Jamaican man, and they named their daughter Kamala, a Sanskrit word for “lotus flower.”
Other than trips during her childhood, Harris hasn’t visited India much — particularly not since becoming vice president — but she has often spoken emotionally about her ties to her late mother’s country of birth. On Tuesday, she released a campaign video highlighting her mother, who arrived in the U.S. at age 19 and became a cancer researcher.
Titled “Mother,” the video ends with a narrator saying: “This daughter of Shyamala, this daughter of the American story, is ready to lead us forward.”
Harris has often talked about how she was guided by the values of her Indian-born grandfather and mother. She has also spoken of her love of south Indian food, especially a type of steamed rice cake called idli.
Harris’ name is engraved in a list of donors — her aunt Sarala Gopalan gave money to the temple in her name — along with that of her grandfather. Outside, a large banner wishes “the daughter of the land” success in the election.
On Tuesday, the village temple also received rare international visitors: two American tourists and one from the U.K., all wearing black t-shirts that said “Kamala Freakin Harris.”
Manikandan Ganesan, a villager who runs a small store near the temple, said Harris’ bid for the presidency has made the village famous. He hopes Harris will eventually visit them.
“Even if she mentioned that she would visit our village, it would make us very happy,” Ganesan said. “Her victory itself will be a big source of happiness for us.”
Village residents also prayed for Harris’ victory in 2020, and set off firecrackers when she became the U.S. Vice President.
For women of the village, the candidate's journey is a source of inspiration.
Local politician Arulmozhi Sudhakar said Harris embodies a significant step toward female empowerment in places like Thulasendrapuram, where a majority of women continue to face discrimination and gender inequality.
“From the time when women were not even allowed to step out of their house, to now a woman from our village contesting in the U.S. presidential election — this brings happiness for us,” Sudhakar said. “The coming generations will see her as a role model to succeed in life.”

Ukraine’s military says it shot down 48 drones and two missiles overnight

Ukraine’s military says it shot down 48 drones and two missiles overnight
Updated 05 November 2024
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Ukraine’s military says it shot down 48 drones and two missiles overnight

Ukraine’s military says it shot down 48 drones and two missiles overnight

KYIV: The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday it shot down 48 out of 79 drones and two missiles launched by Russia overnight.
The air force said the location of 30 other drones had been lost, while another had returned to Russia.


India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning

India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning
Updated 05 November 2024
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India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning

India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning
  • Vandalism incident happened weeks after Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats, linking them to killing of Sikh separatist leader in 2023 
  • Canada has accused India of conducting a broad campaign against South Asian dissidents in Canada, which New Delhi denies 

SYDNEY: India foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday the vandalism of a Hindu temple in Canada on Monday was deeply concerning.
“What happened yesterday at the Hindu temple in Canada was obviously deeply concerning,” he told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra while on an official visit.
The incident happened weeks after Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats, linking them to the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in 2023 in Canada. Canada has accused the Indian government of conducting a broad campaign against South Asian dissidents in Canada, which New Delhi denies.
The incident has increased tensions between Canada and India, and between Sikh separatists and Indian diplomats.
Two Hindu temples were also vandalized in Canberra last month, which Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said was upsetting for members of the Indian community.
“People across Australia have a right to be safe and respected, people also have a right to peaceful protest, people have a right to express their views peacefully,” she told reporters.
“We draw a line between that and violence, incitement of hatred or vandalism,” she added.
Wong said Australia had expressed its views to India about Canada’s allegations over the targeting of Sikh separatists, and Canberra respected Canada’s judicial process. Jaishankar said it was unacceptable that Indian diplomats had been placed under surveillance by Canada.
“Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics,” he said.


India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning

India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning
Updated 05 November 2024
Follow

India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning

India foreign minister says vandalism of Hindu temples deeply concerning
  • Canada has accused the Indian government of conducting a broad campaign against South Asian dissidents in Canada, which New Delhi denies

SYDNEY: India foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday the vandalism of a Hindu temple in Canada on Monday was deeply concerning.
“What happened yesterday at the Hindu temple in Canada was obviously deeply concerning,” he told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra while on an official visit.
The incident happened weeks after Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats, linking them to the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in 2023 in Canada. Canada has accused the Indian government of conducting a broad campaign against South Asian dissidents in Canada, which New Delhi denies.
The incident has increased tensions between Canada and India, and between Sikh separatists and Indian diplomats.
Two Hindu temples were also vandalized in Canberra last month, which Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said was upsetting for members of the Indian community.
“People across Australia have a right to be safe and respected, people also have a right to peaceful protest, people have a right to express their views peacefully,” she told reporters.
“We draw a line between that and violence, incitement of hatred or vandalism,” she added.
Wong said Australia had expressed its views to India about Canada’s allegations over the targeting of Sikh separatists, and Canberra respected Canada’s judicial process. Jaishankar said it was unacceptable that Indian diplomats had been placed under surveillance by Canada.
“Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics,” he said.