Ayelet Samerano, whose late son Yonatan was murdered and kidnapped to Gaza, wrote to the Chairman of the Histadrut, Arnon Bar-David, following his decision to shut down the Israeli economy on Monday.
"My name is Ayelet Samerano. I am the mother of Yonatan Samerano, who was shot and kidnapped from the entrance to Kibbutz Be’eri. I understand that you are calling for the shutdown of the Israeli economy and I am asking if doing so, in the dire situation we are in, is what will bring the hostages back to us? Is this what will make Sinwar want to release them?” she wondered.
Samerano added, "I really want to understand what you expect to happen after you shut down the entire economy. The debate about the outline of the deal includes several pressure points that some believe we should give in to and some who don't. We, the families ourselves, don't know what to say is right and what is not. If you are a mother of a son ... you want x. If you are the mother of a daughter … you want y".
"While we are looking for the ultimate solution, you have chosen to shut down the economy and say to Sinwar, 'You succeeded, keep on murdering'. The murder of the hostages has brought the crowds out to the streets and disabled the State of Israel. So here you go, within a short time the whole country will collapse and you can thank Mr. Bar-David, among many others."
"I hope you have thought this through before you took action. I hope that you will not take sides and exacerbate the rift between the families," Samerano concluded.
Elkana Liebman, whose brother Elyakim was murdered on October 7, also wrote to the Chairman of the Histadrut. "Unfortunately, I saw that you have surrendered to a handful of people who are cynically taking advantage of the hostages and doing anything possible to destroy the country."
"Don't let this happen! As the brother of Elyakim, who was identified as a hostage for several months, and who knows this situation very well, you are only raising the ransom price and harming the hostages, harming the soldiers and harming all the citizens of the State of Israel. As a member of the Histadrut, I expect you to represent us well and set respectable terms of employment for workers, but under no circumstances should you be taking a political side," Liebman wrote.