Parliamentary reception shocked by Noam Sagi’s testimony about mother’s kidnap
MP Robert Jenrick and Wayne David, the Labour MP whose shadow portfolio is the Middle East, also attended Elnet UK, United Hatzolah of Israel and World Jewish Relief event in Westminister
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
Psychologist Noam Sagi has wryly acknowledged he finds himself “in the middle of psychological warfare” after the disappearance of his mother Ada, 75, from her kibbutz, Nir Oz, on 7 October.
Sagi, who has lived in London since 2002, was speaking at a parliamentary reception held jointly by three organisations, Elnet UK, United Hatzolah of Israel, and World Jewish Relief. The reception took place after a day-long programme which was intended to discuss both “the current situation in Israel: impact of war and terror attacks, and 600 days since the war in Ukraine”.
But the immediacy of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel inevitably meant more emphasis on the Middle East conflict, though delegates were urged not to forget the terrible violence inflicted by Russia on Ukraine. In both conflicts, participants were told, “sickening suffering” was being inflicted on innocent civilians. Repeated in many presentations was the mantra that these were not just Israeli or Ukrainian fights, but a clear battle for the future of humanity between good and evil.
Noam Sagi’s powerful testimony clearly shocked the audience at the parliamentary reception, as he told them that his mother had “fought like a lioness”, because there was blood all over her kibbutz home.
“She was nowhere to be found. She’s not on the dead list, not on the injured list, not on the rescued list. Officially, in Israeli terms, she’s on the ‘missing’ list. We are still waiting for something, something. Every day just gets more dreadful, more difficult.”
Ada Sagi, he said, was a Hebrew and Arabic teacher. “She always believed that communication was a bridge for a better future. She is the ultimate optimist. In my fantasies, I really think that she is now fulfilling her life’s purpose. She is looking in the eyes of her captors, and she can talk to them in their language, and potentially do something that no politician can do.”
He urged people to stand up for decency and humanity: “When the voices of love are silent, the voices of hate just get louder and louder and louder.”
Two politicians made emotional contributions to the evening — MP Robert Jenrick, who is Minister for Immigration at the Home Office, and Wayne David, the Labour MP whose shadow portfolio is the Middle East and North Africa.
Conservative peer Lord Polak paid a warm tribute to the Elnet UK director, Joan Ryan, who convened and chaired the event. To applause, he said: “Fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism… many of us have spent years doing it, but it is expected of us. What Joan Ryan did in standing up against the former leader of her party, saying, we’ve got to get rid of this man [Jeremy Corbyn], and giving up her political career… Joan, we love you for it.” [Joan Ryan, former chair of the Labour Friends of Israel, lost a vote of no confidence in her constituency of Enfield North, and, after defecting to the newly formed Change UK party, stood down at the 2019 election.]
Jenrick spoke of his, and the government’s, “commitment to stamp out antisemitism. It is not acceptable to call ‘jihad’ on the streets of London, not acceptable to tear down posters of the hostages, or to aggressively chant ‘from the river to the sea’ on the streets of Whitehall”. In promising to crack down on this behaviour, he said he had asked for cases of support for terrorism to be referred to the Home Office “so that foreign visa-holders can have those visas revoked and be expelled from the UK”. The first of such cases was now going through the legal process, he revealed.
The evening also featured a panel discussion, moderated by Johnny Gould, with contributions from Assaf Admoni of United Hatzolah, Marta Kubica, chief executive of Elnet CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), and Beth Saffer, head of older peoples’ programmes at World Jewish Relief.
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