“This is not an act of resistance”: Relative of kidnapped Bibas family opens up about life after 7th October
Eylon Keshet, a relative of the Bibas family who were kidnapped and taken as hostages to Gaza by Hamas terrorists on 7th October, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke candidly about how he is coping with the ongoing situation and his thoughts on those who claim the terrorist attacks were an act of “resistance”.
This podcast can be listened to here or watched here.
Mr Keshet is the cousin of Yarden Bibas who is married to Shiri Bibas and are the parents of baby Kfir and his five-year-old brother Ariel. The Bibas family lived on the Nir Oz kibbutz, close to Gaza, where a quarter of the community were killed, kidnapped or injured in the 7th October attacks.
In the podcast, Mr Keshet told our host that the current situation for him and his family is “very surreal”.
He said: “You learn to very artificially control your feelings and just get through the day because if you keep thinking about it, you can’t operate. It’s too much for the mind to handle. It’s so nightmarish.”
When asked how he is coping with the situation, he revealed that he feels like he is “on the verge of crying any minute…it feels like torture.”
Almost immediately after Hamas’ barbaric attacks were carried out on 7th October, missing persons posters of the hostages appeared all over Britain and around the world.
Less than a week after the attacks, there were scenes of people tearing down the posters. Videos and photos of people defacing the posters and scrawling slurs on them have become a shamefully common phenomenon.
Posters of Kfir and Ariel Bibas have also been vandalised.
Speaking about these incidents, Mr Keshet said: “How could you rip posters of Kfir and Ariel? And try to politicise it? What kind of monster do you have to be? What kind of ignorant [person] do you have to be to try to merge these issues together?”
“Hamas is a terrorist organisation that has done horrific stuff… there is no merit in it. There is only sadism and destruction in mind,” he added.
Describing scenes of the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Mr Keshet said: “They decapitated heads, they killed elderly people. This is not an act of resistance.”
Yarden and Shiri Bibas, along with Kfir and Ariel, all remain in captivity in Gaza.
Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.
