Eli Albag, the father of Liri who was abducted to the Gaza Strip on October 7th, spoke with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News after he and the parents of other abductees decided to publish a video showing the abduction.
"This is not an easy event. We have been in this matter for more than 230 days, we needed to expose our daughter and it's very sensitive, but we said there's no choice since we need to wake up the world, the state, and the citizens, and to show what happened to these girls who were protecting the State of Israel. It was a great dilemma. On the one hand, you don't want to anger the terrible people who hold them, and on the other hand, it's very difficult for the mothers, three of whom have still not watched the video out of difficulty. There are a lot of emotions surrounding it."
He notes that the video that was published is an edited version of a much worse video. "In the video, I see the fear in their eyes and the uncertainty. You have to understand that it's a three-minute and ten-second video that was cut. The full video is 14 minutes, showing girls and a male soldier who were murdered lying lifeless. The girls sat there from 7:44 until 10:50, next to the murdered victims and the Hamas terrorists."
He rejects the claims of the Israeli ministers who refused to watch the videos. "I have a problem with it, especially since these are leaders who have supporters. I have an issue with the whole discourse. As the father of an abducted girl, I have been hit by a Jew, I've gone and demanded the return of my abducted daughter and knocked on the doors of every minister and MK and begged them to care for the release of my daughter, I traveled to the US, Austria, and London, and everywhere to help the State of Israel with advocacy to bring back my daughter who was abducted on October 7th.
"It's not just me, but most of the families. 128 families fight every day, every hour, we count the minutes, and every minute is an eternity for our daughter. When I'm asked what I'm going through, I answer that what I'm going through is nothing next to what my daughter, the girls, the soldiers, and all the hostages are going through in captivity," he added.
The last evidence about his daughter came to him during the first hostage deal. "Until now, 56 hostages were released, and some were held with Liri. We heard some stories, some good, some bad."
While many reject comparisons between October 7th and the Holocaust, Albag emphasizes the similarities: "When we met with ambassadors from around the world, I told them we had a one-day Holocaust on October 7th. To see the Holocaust we used to have to go to Auschwitz. Today, I tell them, you can come (here), it's precisely an hour's drive from Tel Aviv, and see what happened on October 7th; the scenes of the Kibbutzes and the burnt houses.
"The minor difference was that in the Holocaust we didn't have a state, we didn't have a military, we didn't have anyone to defend us. Today, we have a military - which wasn't there, we have a state - which wasn't there either, and we didn't have anyone to defend us. It's a harsh statement, and I say it because we have to change the nation's discourse. We don't have right and left, we don't have religious, secular, or haredim. We are all Jews and we will only win together.
"The soldiers who are fighting are from all parts of society. They are heroes who know how to fight (the enemy) and not argue or fight (with each other). Why when they return from the military do they have to hear this rotten discourse? This tears us apart and prevents us from bringing the girls home. When there isn't a unifying discourse, we start going back to the way we spoke on October 6th, and not to the way we spoke after October 7th."
He ends by calling on the people of Israel to pray for his daughter and all the hostages. "I ask that everyone pray for Liri Rivka bat Shira. It will help us and it very much helps us that we know that many pray for her return and the return of the rest of the hostages."