Ofir Braslavski, the father of hostage Rom, slammed MKs for not doing enough to save his son from captivity during the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting discussing a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription law on Wednesday.
A video of Rom in captivity, in which he was seen, thin, lying on a mattress, and speaking about suffering from severe hunger, was published by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in early August. Rom was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival on October 7, 2023, where he was working in security.
“Look at my child, how he was and how he is today,” Braslavski called on the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), along with the other MKs attending the meeting.
“You already saw the video a month ago. Do any of you care? Does it matter? You care about recruitment, about making deals? Look at my son – he’s dying,” he continued.
“It’s a Holocaust, and no one cares,” he said. “This happened on your watch. You are guilty. You spend all day blaming others.”
Braslavski also said that while he usually doesn’t attend the meetings in the Knesset, he felt that he “had to today.”
“We’re done being silent,” he continued.
“You say on TV, ‘This is important, that is important.’ Nothing is important! Except for them, except for them! Look at him – he’s wasting away, to death, dying!” Braslavski added.
Remaining hostages could end up dead, relative warns
Gil Dickmann, cousin of slain hostage Carmel Gat, also spoke at the committee meeting. Gat was murdered a year ago by Hamas after suffering starvation and torture while being held captive in a tunnel. “The hostages who are still there, right now, could end up like Carmel,” he said.
“And their condition is worse,” Dickmann continued. “Carmel was murdered while underweight, but not nearly as underweight as what we’ve seen with Rom or with Evyatar [David], because they’ve been there another year.”
In the PIJ video of Rom from August, he is seen saying, “I’ve run out of food and water. They would give me a little bit of food, but today, nothing at all.”
“Only three pieces of falafel – that’s what I ate today. Yesterday I barely ate a plate of rice. Bring in food and a liter of water. I am on the verge of death,” he continued.
The video also showed Rom writing in a notebook in Hebrew: “Get me out of here now!” With a drawing of a hostage pin. The date on the notebook indicates that it was filmed on July 20.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.