Eyal Waldman: You cannot make hostages a political issue

After the local labor court ordered the general strike to end today, Eyal Waldman, one of the founders of the Business Forum and the Emergency Forum for the Release of Hostages, has no plans to stop his activity. “We will make decisions on a daily basis about how to proceed, but we have to get to a situation where a hostage deal is done. Today a lot of people came out to demonstrate, and it was a successful day,” he says.

Court ruling on strike comes earlier than expected

“The important thing is to rescue the hostages who were alive, who were killed between Thursday and Friday. These are people who were alive four days ago, people who survived 11 months of captivity and then were killed because there was no agreement on the hostages.”

But was your protest effective?

“We’ll judge by the results.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims you are building a Knesset list and planning to enter politics

“Where did he get this information? He has no idea what he is talking about, and it is fake, incorrect and untrue. The main story is unreliable and disconnected from reality.”

Was the strike, whether it ended at 14.30 or 18.00, an effective tool in your view? In the end, it was described as a political demonstration.

“I don’t know how the hostage issue can be turned into a political issue. The hostages must be returned – period. We must reach an agreement with Hamas as soon as possible to return as many hostages as possible to their homes. I lost my daughter Danielle (at the Supernova music festival), and yesterday they buried Almog Seroussi, who was the only one who got out of the car my daughter was in. He was the only survivor in the car, he was captured, and then he was taken home in a coffin.

Erez Shachar, founder and managing partner of the Qumra venture capital firm and one of the leaders of the High-Tech Emergency Forum, says that high-tech companies are exceptionally mobilizing to protest for a deal to return the hostages simply because they represent the population in Israel — 11 percent of the workforce in the economy, and high-tech employees actually make up 20 percent of the IDF reserves. Many of the tech offices were closed today, and this was an important publicity move.

The strike was called off amid allegations that it was political, which the government also claims.

“I have nothing to say about the court’s ruling – people like us accept every ruling as fans of the rule of law. If the desire to return the hostages to their homes and save lives is political, then everything becomes political. The return of the hostages should not become a political issue, and it is unfortunate that this issue has become a political issue as well. This was not a protest event for Kaplan, it was an event for the families of the victims.”

What is your next step and will the tech strike continue?

“First, we will go to demonstrations tonight in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Second, I don’t know if we will see companies strike – we joined the Histadrut strike as a sign of solidarity, and I don’t think it is effective to strike only high-tech companies, because these companies are not relevant to the local market. However, we have plans to continue the activity on the social and national side, towards supporting the families of the hostages and returning the hostages and working to complete a deal that is on the table according to all indications and was not finalized for political reasons. We will continue to see protest actions not only in the coming days but in the coming weeks, until we see the return of the hostages.”

This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on September 2, 2024.

© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.