'Too Bad You Returned': Freed Israeli Hostage Says She's Received Negative Comments
Agam Goldstein-Almog was kidnapped to Gaza from Kibbutz Kfar Azza, along with her mother and brothers. She says the public didn't like that she described her relations with her captors, and that 'People just can't grasp' what it was like as a hostage
Agam Goldstein-Almog, an Israeli teen who was held hostage by Hamas and released from captivity in November's hostage deal, said she is hurt by some of the responses she has received from Israelis since her release.
"Where can one find the space within the loss to deal with such horrific comments from people who live on this same land? Comments like 'too bad you returned,' or 'you had it easy in captivity.' It does something," she said at the MuniWorld Expo in Tel Aviv.
Goldstein-Almog said following interviews she gave, people reacted as if "they were my enemies. It took a toll on me, I didn't imagine I would have to deal with negative comments. Why would anyone say something mean, how can you?" she asked.
She added that the public didn't like that she "described my relations with my captors. But those were my captors: my food, my water, my life and my death. People just can't grasp it."
Agam and her mother told Haaretz their family sometimes ate rice and pita, and experienced some hunger. They played games, and, on good days, listened to the radio. Agam said then, "The fear was constant, and it's in my head now too when nothing is happening."
They also said once in a while, they were moved to a different location. When they were moved to a tunnel, they met six girls who were held alone. "Many girls experienced severe sexual abuse, they are injured – very, very serious and complex injuries that are not being treated," Agam said in December, "I can't even imagine what their situation is, what hope they hold on to."
archive.ph
Many are going to be disappointed if the return of hostages means the end of razing Gaza in preparation for Israeli settlements. Society has been thoroughly corrupted by financial incentives to appropriate Palestinian properties and by the impunity for any means applied to coerce their turnover to Israeli hands. People that profitted from the original Nakba are in no position to criticize. |
