The evening also marked the launch of a national campaign aimed at getting people to wear a yellow ribbon, tie ribbons onto things and write to their representatives about the hostages.
Heidi Bachram of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign said at the event: “Emily Damari’s mum Mandy is in the UK advocating for her daughter. She said Emily may never heal after what she’s endured after a year in hell. She must be given the chance to because the alternative is unthinkable. We must never accept this as normal.”
The event, during which speeches were made and the Hatikvah was sung, was organised by the Yellow Ribbon Campaign in partnership with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Sussex Jewish Representative Council and the Brighton & Hove Jewish Community.
Of the 101 people still being held in the tunnels of Gaza by Hamas, 423 days after they were abducted, at least nine are reported to have connections to the UK through British relatives, including British citizen and hostage Emily Damari, who was taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.
Hostages with British connections:
Emily Damari – British family
Tsachi Idan - British cousin
Eli and Yossi Sharabi - Brothers with British in-laws (Eli had a British wife, Lianne and two daughters, Noiya and Yahel who were murdered)
Oded Lifshitz - daughter resident in the UK
Ilan Weiss - British family member
Shay Levinson - British great-aunt
Keith Seigel - British family
Avinatan Or - British family
