Following Ynet's revelation that Noa and Yaakov Argamani will join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his upcoming U.S. visit, relatives of some hostages on Wednesday called the on rescued and released hostage not to cooperate. "Noa my dear, he's using you," said Dr. Maayan Sherman, the mother of Ron Sherman, whose body was held in Gaza and later retrieved.
"Explain to your father. Others will pay for it with their lives. Don't travel with him as an 'ornament,'" Sherman added.
Yifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer is still being held captive by Hamas and whose children were kidnapped and returned to Israel as part of the hostage deal, tweeted: "Someone please explain to beloved Noa Argamani that he is taking advantage of her. She was kidnapped a second time, by him."
The climax of Netanyahu's visit to the U.S. will be his address to Congress on July 24. Those expected to fly with Netanyahu to Washington include representatives of captive soldiers and civilians, men and women who attended the Nova music festival and those from the affected kibbutzim and cities, Jews and non-Jews. The list also includes families who have been waiting for the past 10 years for their loved ones to be returned from Gaza. The list was created by the Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing, Brigadier General (Ret.) Gal Hirsch.
While some hostages' families take part in the protests and the "First deal, then you can travel," campaign, several families have accepted the prime minister's invitation, including Yaakov and Noa Argamani, Ditza Or, the mother of Noa Argamani's partner Avinatan Or; Ayelet Samerano, the mother of Yonatan Samerano; and Tali Gueli, the mother of the late Ran Gueli.
Ayelet Levy, Naama's mother, has already rejected the prime minister's invitation to join him in Congress. Other families said that Netanyahu's office offered them a place on the flight with the prime minister, but they refused until a full agreement on the captives is reached.
Sasha Ariev, the sister of the captive reconnaissance soldier Karina Ariv, has yet to respond to the invitation. "I want to see progress," she said. "I can't fly in peace until I see a deal is in the works." Alon Gat, the brother of captive Carmel Gat, and Eliyahu Bibas, the father of Yarden Bibas, are also considering whether to accept the invitation. In addition to October 7 families, family members of hostages from 2014 have also received invitations to join Netanyahu's visit.
"They didn't invite soldiers' parents"
Yehuda Cohen, the father of the abducted soldier Nimrod Cohen, commented on Noa Argamani joining Netanyahu's U.S. visit and slammed the Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Brigadier General (Ret.) Gal Hirsch. "I tried to ask Hirsch why I didn't get an invitation. After all, he wrote that they brought a diverse group, but none of the soldiers' parents. We are working on our visit. I received partial funding from the Defense Ministry as a first-degree relative. They knew that if they refused we would say it was political."
"Our delegation has three destinations: Washington for our meeting with Biden, Los Angeles and then to Boston. Together with me are flying Danny Elgart, Ayala Metzger, Yifat Calderon, and more. Einav Tsangauker decided not to fly in the end."
He said that a goal of the visit is to get closer to reaching a hostage deal. There is an assumption that they will announce that the obstacles to the deal have been removed during their meeting, so we will demand a deal that will be announced and completed. We will pursue him until all the hostages are released. We will not accept things in writing, only tangible things."
Professor Yonatan Dekel-Chen, father of Shai, who was kidnapped to Gaza, said: "Our family did not receive an invitation. We have 35 hostages from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Maybe one family received an invitation from the prime minister, and they politely refused to travel with him to the U.S. There are 120 captives forsaken by the State of Israel and the one leading us. Every word that comes out of Israeli government officials is salt on the deep wounds of the periphery, especially the hostages' families. It's inhumane."
Dekel-Chen added: "We're concerned that he's traveling to the U.S. I'll be in Washington, but I won't be present at the speech. I'm quite disgusted. I'm not a protester, he's my prime minister. I'll demand from him that the issue of the hostages is the most important thing to be addressed. There's no reason in the world for him to travel there without agreeing to a deal."