Leah Goldin, mother of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin whose body is being held by Hamas in Gaza, accompanied President Reuven Rivlin on his trip to the US.
While there, she met UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and also attended a meeting Rivlin held with a delegation of ambassadors from around the world to the United Nations.
From New York, she will continue to Washington to continue her efforts to bring back her son.
“[Rivlin] was actually carrying our humanitarian message, that kidnapping and holding Hadar captive in Gaza as a bargaining chip is a violation of international law. That is why he’s calling for this international resolution to bring our boys home – Hadar, Oron [Shaul], Avera [Mengistu] and Hisham [al-Sayed],” Goldin told Arutz Sheva.
“This is the second time that he has invited us to join this amazing visit and for me, the fact that he went to the UN and included me in the meeting with the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, was amazing.”
Asked whether she was encouraged by the meeting, Goldin replied, “[I was] encouraged as much as possible because after all it’s the UN and to add to this, all the ambassadors are willing to convey our voice and that is the most important thing – to convey our voice, to resolve our humanitarian problem, to return our boys back home, and this can be a real game changer, especially now that we had this last war and there are discussions on agreements on a ceasefire where all these countries will donate and provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”
“They are now responsible to bring back our boys as a confidence building measure. The word condition is wrong. The term is confidence building measures. Whenever you make any agreements, there are a lot of confidence building measures, so this should be included,” she added.