Crowds gather in Whitehall to mourn dead Jewish hostages

The rain poured down like tears — and then the tears poured like rain, as a grim-faced crowd gathered opposite Downing Street in Whitehall to pay tribute to the four dead Israelis who had been finally returned home by Hamas this morning.

Under the auspices of Stop the Hate and the UK Hostages and Missing Families Forum, it was an event full of symbolism, made more difficult because rabbis told the organisers that it was not possible to say Kaddish for the four dead, since no funeral services had yet been held.

Additionally, at the time of the event, the death of Oded Lifshitz,  84, had been formally confirmed by Israel. The other three bodies are widely understood to be those of Shiri Bibas and her two small children, Ariel, aged four, and his baby brother, Kfir, just nine months old when they were abducted on 7 October 2023.

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Assembling in Parliament Square, a group of men, dressed mainly in black, wore hostage yellow ribbons tied around their eyes, mouths and hands, to represent the binding of the hostages in Gaza. Organisers said they symbolised the fact that almost all the remaining hostages are said to be men.

On the pavement nearby, a group of pro-Palestinian supporters waved flags but did not attempt to come near, and were moved on by police before the pro- Israel event began.

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Then it was time for a short procession with four makeshift coffins, down to a cleared space where an Israeli flag-waving crowd awaited them. The black nylon coffins were laid on the ground, draped with Israeli flags bearing the yellow hostage ribbon symbol, and surrounded by posters declaring defiantly “until the last hostage”. The coffin devoted to Oded Lifshitz was backed by a poster with his photograph and the slogan “Taken Alive: Returned in a Coffin”.

Rev Hayley Ace of the Lea Valley Church pledged support and solidarity from the non-Jewish community.

But besides the recitation of psalms and the memorial prayer El Ma’ale Rachamim, there was only one main address — from Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies. Clearly distraught, he told the crowd: “We stand here today in pain, in sorrow, and in utter disbelief”. The Jewish community was being forced to bear “another unbearable cruelty”.

He denounced the terror group Hamas as “a curse” not just to Israelis but to the region and also to Palestinians. “They play with our grief, our hopes, our humanity”, he said.

Of the red-headed Bibas children, Rosenberg said: “The world looked at them and saw innocents. Hamas looked at them and they saw bargaining chips”. He described Oded Lifshitz as “an angel of peace,” who had volunteered to help Palestinians.

Rosenberg declared bitterly: “We ask ourselves, where is humanity? Where are the NGOs? Do they not know that human rights are universal — or is it, for them, that Jews don’t count?”

But he added, with defiance: “We refuse to let Hamas define our future, and we refuse to let our people be forgotten…we refuse to let the world look away, and we will not stop.”

In one last symbolic act, organisers called for a minute’s silence — and then the traditional soil at a standard Jewish funeral was shovelled over the coffins. And the rain began again.