Liat Somer, a former senior member of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, has publicly accused elements within the organization of political discrimination in their treatment of families whose loved ones were abducted by Hamas during the October 7th massacre.
In an interview on i24NEWS, she claimed that some families were sidelined based on their political views.
"They made a selection based on political opinion — and I say this as someone who was a Kaplan protester before October 7," she stated, referring to the anti-government demonstrations held on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv. "Inside the headquarters, I operate without political bias."
She cited the case of the Samerano family, whose loved one remains in Hamas captivity, as an example of this alleged bias.
"They approached me, and I realized that no one was willing to support them. They refused to align politically against the Prime Minister — and they weren't the only ones," she said.
According to her, while no one explicitly voiced this political filtering, it was clearly present in practice.
"No one will come out and say these things openly, but the reality speaks for itself," she said. "I wasn’t willing to take part in a selection process of families based on political considerations. There were times the headquarters chose to give up necessary publicity because of such issues."
While emphasizing her continued respect for the Forum and its mission, Liat expressed concern over internal dynamics.
"I don’t want this to come off as criticism of any particular family or the headquarters as a whole. The headquarters continues to work. But I felt that there were those who used the situation to build a name for themselves. There were internal intrigues and political prioritizations."