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Photo Essay: Israeli-American Hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s Planned World Trip Sparks Airport Rally
Friends and family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Dec. 27, 2023. Photo: Shanie Roth
In a gesture of solidarity, dozens of friends and relatives of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a hostage held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, gathered on Wednesday at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport to mark the date that the 23-year-old Israeli-American would have embarked on a two-year worldwide trek.
Friends and family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Dec. 27, 2023. Photo: Shanie Roth
“Today, Dec. 27, Hersh has a one-way ticket to go traveling around the world. It’s a trip that he’s been planning for a long time. He’s been dreaming about it for a long time,” his father, Jonathan Polin, shared. “He’s unfortunately not going to be taking off on a trip today, but we are hoping and praying that he’s going to take off on this trip soon.”
Jonathan Polin, center, and Rachel Goldberg, left, at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Dec. 27, 2023. Photo: Shanie Roth
The young adventurer’s life took a devastating turn when he was abducted, along with several dozen others, from the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7 in southern Israel. More than 350 revelers at the party were also murdered by Hamas. A video shows Goldberg-Polin being shoved onto a pickup truck at gunpoint after his left arm — his dominant arm — had been blown off by a grenade that terrorists launched into a roadside bomb shelter in which he and some friends had been hiding.
Attendees at Wednesday’s airport gathering held posters adorned with Goldberg-Polin’s image and the slogan “Bring Hersh Home.”
Friends and family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Dec. 27, 2023. Photo: Shanie Roth
Jonathan Polin brought a backpack that he had intended to gift his son prior to the planned excursion. “The bag was not supposed to be here today on my back. It’s supposed to be on Hersh’s back,” he lamented. “We hope it’s going to be soon.”
Jonathan Polin at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Dec. 27, 2023. Photo: Shanie Roth
Hersh’s mother, Rachel Goldberg, said that her son had always had a fascination with world maps and travel. “He’d been planning and dreaming of [his trip] since he was in first grade, with detailed maps and detailed plans, by himself.”
She expressed her hope that by this time next year, Hersh would be on his trip: “You know what? You don’t need two arms to travel the world.”
Rachel Goldberg at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Dec. 27, 2023. Photo: Shanie Roth
Rachel Goldberg has been relentlessly campaigning for her son’s return since Oct. 7. She has addressed the United Nations on two occasions and also met with several prominent figures, including US President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Elon Musk, and Pope Francis. She has also been profiled in several publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Atlantic, and was on the cover of Time magazine together with her husband.
Pinned to Goldberg’s chest is the number of days since her son’s abduction. The number is also in a large black and white sign on the roof of her house. Changing them is the first thing she does every morning after awakening. Her husband calls the Red Cross every single day to urge them to visit her son and the other 129 hostages still in Gaza. The two established a website called One Min A Day to encourage US citizens to call or text local elected officials on a daily basis and urge for her son’s release.
Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Dec. 27, 2023. Photo: Shanie Roth
Pictures from Wednesday’s rally show the outpouring of support for the Goldberg-Polin family, as well as the efforts by Hersh’s parents to fight for his release — and to endure until then.
The post Photo Essay: Israeli-American Hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s Planned World Trip Sparks Airport Rally first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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