Leah Goldin, the mother of fallen IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, responded on Tuesday to a telephone call from the office of the Prime Minister, who asked to urgently meet the parents of the missing soldiers and Israeli citizens.
In an interview with Channel 12 News on Wednesday, Goldin recalled the meeting which she left in tears and discussed the ongoing fight to bring back her son for burial in Israel.
"The Prime Minister invites us, says that there is something very significant here without providing details on what it is," Goldin recalled. "Zehava Shaul (mother of fallen soldier Oron Shaul), who came all the way from Tiberias and could barely sit there, said to him: 'I didn’t sleep all night and I thought you were bringing Oron back to me.' The same goes for me – that’s what I thought as well.”
Netanyahu, however, suggested that the families attend a UN conference in New York to raise awareness of the fight for the boys' return.
“Now he wakes up? Sends us to something ceremonial that we went through two and a half years ago? This is a scandal," said the bereaved mother.
"The day of the yahrzeit is a difficult day for all the families, it's like twisting the knife in the heart, and suddenly it turns out that he's sending us for a pleasure trip in New York. What does that mean? You've been doing nothing for five years. You promised us there will be no arrangement with Gaza without the return of the soldiers. You have all the tools, so why aren’t you doing that?”
After half an hour Goldin got up and left the meeting in tears. "I could not be there anymore," she said. "There is a limit to how many times one can stick the knife in my heart and turn it around – as though I'm nothing. I'm not nothing."
She clarified, "I have no despair. There is no despair in the Goldin family, we are the second generation of Holocaust survivors, we are looking ahead. We will bring Hadar back, and the one who will bring him back is the same Prime Minister who sent him to war."
The Prime Minister's Office said in response, "Along with the efforts of the Prime Minister and the state to bring the boys home, Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to act in every way and therefore summoned the families of the captives and missing persons to his office to present them with a proposal for another UN discussion led by the United States and in coordination with Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu understands the pain of the families and will continue to do everything in order to bring the boys home."