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Released hostage Danielle Aloni speaks about keeping prisoners

“Nothing is more important than bringing the hostages back. We can deal with everything else later, except the hostages,” said released hostage Danielle Aloni last week.

Aloni spoke to the magazine after taking part in a photo shoot that showed how the war between Israel and Hamas has influenced the way we dress in Israel. For her, the photo shoot was about keeping the hostages in everyone's memory.

Some people who do not understand the need for a hostage agreement or think that there is still time to bring the hostages home think so because “they do not understand anything [about what it is like being in captivity]”, said Aloni.

She stressed that time is running out for many of the hostages still held by Hamas. “I saw with my own eyes the people who were in captivity with me and they were very much alive, and now they are no longer alive. We do not know why they are no longer alive.”

Aloni described her captivity by Hamas terrorists as “without air, without sun, with terrorists constantly loitering, without freedom, without independence, with hardly anything to eat,” she said, adding that there were weeks when she did not shower.

DANIELLE ALONI in a Yael Resnick T-shirt and a Buzz & Luna skirt, photographed at the Tower of David: With Or Yaakov (left) in a Enoshop T-shirt and his own jeans. (Source: YITZ WOOLF)

Captured along with her young daughter Emilia, Aloni was unable to think about or care for herself during her captivity.

Selfless behavior

“I didn't focus on myself. I neglected everything that had to do with me – how I looked, whether I ate or not, whether I showered or not, whether I smelled bad. It didn't matter. There is no me, there is a girl,” she said.

“There is a very small girl whose whole world collapsed in one day. She has seen and experienced such terrible things. And I am the only person, her only family there. I am her whole world.”

Aloni stressed that it is important not to normalize the situation in which hostages are still being held. When asked how the Israelis could do this, she outlined some options.

“We make noise, we leave it in our consciousness all the time. We become ambassadors of this country,” she said.

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She stressed the importance of serving as an ambassador for Israel and said global organizations have failed Israelis.

“We saw that UNICEF said nothing: UNICEF! Children were captured by terrorists and UNICEF said nothing,” she said as an example.

We also need to be united as a society, Aloni said, pointing out that on a practical level this means showing more compassion for and supporting one another.

We need “less anger in the streets, less condemnation of people based on their political opinions,” she said, adding that Israelis should “judge people based on their good qualities.”

Charity is important, she said. “If we keep this mitzvah, I think the world will be a much better place.”

Aloni reiterated the need to bring the hostages home – immediately. There is “nothing more important than the hostages. Everything else can be put on the back burner, but not them.”



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