Israel is a complicated country. For many, or maybe most Israelis, we don’t usually get out of our boxes and communities and have meaningful interactions much less relationships with people in other sectors of society. Largely, that applies to most of us in most of the diverse sectors of Israeli society: religious, secular, Arab, Jewish, left, right, etc.
A few months ago I “met” Youssef Ziyadne through reading his story in “One Day in October,” a gripping compilation of stories about 40 heroes of the October 7 Hamas massacre; Israelis who saved lives of others, often at risk to their own lives, and in some cases their lives being taken by the terrorists from whom they heroically and selflessly saved others.
Youssef saved 30 people from the Nova festival where nearly 400 people were murdered, packing them all into his 14-seat minibus while under fire as he navigated back roads and open fields in order to avoid the terrorists. Unlike the 30 Israeli Jews whose lives he saved, Youssef is a Muslim Bedouin Israeli Arab. He has been celebrated and recognized for his heroism nationally, even by the president.
When I was planning details for the incredible Root & Branch program this past fall, I decided that if I was going to pay someone to be our driver anyway, I would pay a hero of October 7. It was one of the best decisions, to connect the Christian volunteers who had come to harvest olives with a sector of Israeli society to which they would not otherwise have a connection.
Youssef opened the participants’ eyes to the sometimes-complicated nature of the Jewish state not being only Jewish. In fact, some 20% of Israel’s 10 million citizens are Israeli Arabs, full equal citizens. The participants got to interact with a Bedouin Arab man whose modesty, warmth and charm overcame any language barrier.
Only at the end of the trip, when we were at the site of the Nova festival, did I reveal who Youssef was and why I went out of the way to hire him. It was an overwhelmingly emotional moment as they learned about Youssef, their driver and hero, and how the same vehicle in which we had been riding all week was used to save so many lives. (See it here.)
Youssef and I have stayed in touch. While he’s a hero of Israel, he and his family have also experienced loss and suffering from October 7. That day he was saving the lives of 30 others, four members of his extended family were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists: Youssef (53) and his children Hamza (22), Bilal (18) and Aisha (17). Yes, Arabic-speaking Bedouin Israeli Muslim Arabs were kidnapped by Arab Islamic terrorists who showed them no mercy or humanity either, underscoring that the accusation of apartheid in Israel is false as even terrorists attack, murder and kidnap us without discrimination. It hopefully challenges the “ideology” of the pro-Hamas protesters around the world who reflexively blame Israel for everything imaginable, but must be confronted by the reality of this evil.
Bilal and Aisha were released in November 2023 as part of the deal that saw 105 of the 251 hostages released. Until this week two of Youssef’s relatives remained in captivity. Until this week, both Youssef and Hamza were presumed alive.
On Tuesday, the body of “our” Youssef’s cousin, also named Youssef, was brought home for burial. There are signs that Hamza is also dead, but his body has not been recovered. Youssef’s body was found in one of the many terror tunnels in which Hamas still operates, where they still hold 99 other hostages in captivity, and from which they still are firing rockets at Israel, and attacking and killing Israeli soldiers on an almost daily basis.
“Our” Youssef has strong words for the inhuman evil that Hamas represents. This week, another relative speaking on national TV added that “what they [Hamas] did on October 7, regardless of whether it was to Bedouins or Jews, is not allowed in Islam.”
Another former Bedouin Arab hostage, Farhan al-Qadi, rescued by the IDF from a terror tunnel in August, expressed grief and no doubt experiencing PTSD, mourned Youssef also in national media. “Youssef, my friend, my neighbor, my childhood friend. It’s very hard. We need to end this war and bring them home, everyone. He was a friend to everyone, a father to everyone, he doesn’t deserve this – nobody does.”
Israelis don’t always interact with one another as members of different sectors of Israeli society. I’ve been fortunate to become friends with a number of Israeli Arabs. But even for those of us who don’t interact with one another, as a nation we are heartbroken this week at the discovery of another body of another hostage, someone who was presumed alive and who, along with Hamza, was on the leaked list of the initial 34 hostages to be released as part of a deal to return all the hostages.
Now, Youssef Ziyadna is another victim of the evil terrorism that we all face and confront equally, on multiple fronts. His murder, and the national publicity and sense of grief we all feel, unite us in grief, and further undermine allegations of apartheid. It would be unimaginable in a totalitarian discriminatory apartheid nation to feature minority members of society on a national basis as the extended Ziyadne family has been, much less with respect and sympathy.
Join me in extending condolences to the extended Ziyadne family, and praying that ALL the remaining hostages will be found and brought home soon. As it’s not intuitive that Bedouin Israeli Arabs have a wide support network outside Israel, the Genesis 123 Foundation has launched a tax-deductible fund to support the Ziyadne family at this painful time.
It is also imperative to turn up the pressure on Hamas to release ALL the hostages by signing the global petition, especially as fear mounts that they will simply execute those who remain alive in order to maximize the pain and suffering that is their currency.
