Dear friends,
Just hours after the October 7 attacks, I was called up for reserve duty, and we were at war.
For four months, I helped lead delegations of senior officials on tours of the kibbutzim that were massacred near the Gaza border, including J Street delegations. We bore witness to the barbarity and devastation of Hamas’ atrocities – an aftermath of grief and destruction that words can’t truly capture, and which will haunt Israelis for generations.
We owe it to the victims to ensure such horror can never be repeated. To get every hostage home. To end this long and bloody conflict for good.
The transition back to ‘normal life’ was unbearable. Returning to work and daily routines felt impossible while the war raged on and hostages remained in captivity. Restaurants, music, even ordinary gatherings felt out of reach – life around me continued, but I could not.
The first time I felt a flicker of myself returning was at a protest. Standing in the streets, surrounded by thousands of voices, I remembered there are still ways to fight for a better future.
For the past year and 8 months, I’ve been leading the Women’s Protest for the Return of the Hostages (@WomenDemandLife) together with a group of 10 amazing women. This isn’t our day job, we’re all volunteers, but it is the most important work of our lives.
We began in January 2024, weeks after the temporary ceasefire and hostage deal collapsed. We have been demanding the return of all the hostages through a deal. We hold giant portraits of the hostages, images that have become powerful symbols of the struggle to bring them home. Returned hostages told us that from captivity, they saw us holding their pictures. It gave them hope.
The struggle to bring them home and end this war is not only a fight for hostage families – it’s a fight for Israel’s soul. For who we are and who we aspire to be. It is our moral duty to bring everyone home and stop the bloodshed. I know so many Jews around the world feel this in their hearts as well.
This past Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in a day of disruption with a clear call: Bring all the hostages home and end this catastrophic war.
Around me were rabbis grieving the abandonment of the hostages, reservists enraged that this war is being waged for political survival, and peace advocates holding up images of the children killed and starving in Gaza. So many corners of our fractured society were there.
We know what this takeover of Gaza means: More hostages will die, more civilians will suffer, more soldiers will be sent to their deaths, and Israel will be isolated further – not to bring anyone home or secure our safety, but to fight an ideological war and prop up Netanyahu’s coalition.
This is a betrayal of our Jewish values. A betrayal of our founding ideals of justice, solidarity and peace.
In recent weeks, a new wave of protest has swept across Israel. It began on August 5 with Hostages’ Night, when roads were blocked for hours and thousands mobilized across the country. It continues with biweekly Disruption Days, when thousands go on strike, skip work and fill the streets. The country is boiling.
And in the face of this, last Tuesday – while hostages starved in tunnels and the public demanded their release – Netanyahu and his partners in abandonment cut short a critical cabinet meeting that could have ended the war, so they could dine in luxury restaurants with political operatives from the West Bank.
Before Passover, we met with Gadi Moses, a former hostage. He told us that on the rare occasions he was able to glimpse a television during his captivity, he saw the protests – and they gave him strength. Other released hostages have said the same: The protests were oxygen. They knew they had not been forgotten.
These protests are not just political acts; they are moral ones – rooted in Jewish values of justice, compassion and the sanctity of life. Many of us protest because our people’s history and our values compel us. We stand in the long tradition of Jewish peace advocacy, fighting not only for Israeli lives but for the ethical soul of our society.
Last week, we went up to Jerusalem to demonstrate outside the Prime Minister’s Residence. We held those giant portraits. As Netanyahu’s convoy passed, they tried to block us from view – but they cannot silence us.
It’s overwhelming to stand in a sea of hundreds of thousands of people and hear their voices rise together. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Israelis demand an end to the war and a deal to bring the hostages home.
The numbers speak for themselves, living hostages are brought home through agreements. The government is acting against the will of its people. On Friday afternoon we received the news of the recovery of the body of Ilan Weiss z”l, a kidnapped victim who was murdered after rushing to defend Be’eri. His wife and daughter were released in the November 2023 deal.
On Saturday night, we received more heartbreaking news – the recovery of the body of Idan Shtivi z”l, a Nova concertgoer, and the death of the 900th fallen soldier.
In this most painful moment, the Weiss family asked us to deliver their message: No to military operations to retrieve bodies, yes to agreements that bring everyone home – the living and the fallen.
I ask you, our friends and partners in America: Do not look away.
Speak the truth: military pressure kills hostages, public pressure will bring them home.
A year after six hostages were murdered in Hamas captivity, we remember the continued false promises. The Rafah invasion would bring hostages home, we were told, only to receive more devastating news that hostages who were kidnapped alive and abandoned to their deaths.
Do not buy into the spin that says calling for an end to this war or the return of the hostages is somehow “helping Hamas” or “anti-Israel.” It is the most Jewish, the most pro-Israel position imaginable.
Our protests have power, which is why Netanyahu tries to silence us with smears.
The protest is rising to a new level this week, led by the courageous mothers of the hostages. Beginning Wednesday, we will stand day and night in Jerusalem, as close as possible to the decision-makers. We will not leave the street outside Netanyahu’s residence until this war is ended and a path to life and hope is restored.
We need you to be bold, to be courageous and to stand with us – to demand that this war end, that the hostages come home, and that we finally begin to imagine a future beyond endless bloodshed.
Yours in determination,
Hilit Sagie
