The Israeli beauty influencer fighting to free the hostages

Then Hamas launched its murderous assault on Israel on October 7, 2023 and everything changed. Ever since, Waxman Bakshi has used her voice to fight Israel’s corner on the international stage and demand that those held hostage in Gaza are brought home.

She has travelled the world addressing political leaders and decision-makers in some of the globe’s most iconic institutions, including the US Congress, Westminster and the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

With 850,000 followers across her social media platforms, Waxman Bakshi has a powerful voice. Her videos are forceful, fearless and inspiring as she demands the release of the hostages and calls for the defeat of Hamas and the eradication of antisemitism worldwide.

She is a key representative of the Israeli Citizen Spokespersons’ Office, an NGO co-founded by former government spokesman Eylon Levy to defend Israel and the Jewish people on the global stage.

This mission, as she sees it, is deeply personal. Agam Berger, one of the 251 people taken hostage on October 7, is her cousin. Then 19, now 20, Berger was one of five young female soldiers abducted from the Nahal Oz base – just two days after completing her basic training.

“Agam is a sweet, typical young woman,” Bakshi tells me. “She plays the violin and she has a million friends – she’s so well loved.

“I dreamed every week, at least two or three times, how I would literally go to the border of Gaza and pick up Agam and bring her home.”

That’s not her only personal connection to the horrific events of that day. Her husband’s cousin was murdered at the Nova festival, while a further three relatives were killed defending Israel against the terrorists in the south.

But at home that morning, the reality of the atrocities did not immediately sink in.

She was lying in bed, trawling the internet for tickets to see Bruno Mars that night. having loved seeing him live the previous night.

“I called down to my husband saying ‘I’m buying tickets’ and he came upstairs and said ‘I don’t think there’s going to be a concert tonight. Turn on the TV.’”

What she saw was incomprehensible, as it was for everyone watching around the world. Thousands of reserves were immediately drafted by the IDF, while armies of civilians volunteered their time however they could.

For Waxman Bakshi that meant logging in to social media.

“The first videos I saw were of people looking through their blinds in Sderot and you could see the terrorists on the trucks and I saw a video of Naama Levi put into the truck with her pants all bloody and all the other early videos.

“I stitched them all into one clip and put it up on Instagram with the caption ‘how did you wake up today?’”

The clip was viewed a million times and it didn’t stop there.

“The first 48 hours was very, very hectic,” she recalls. “People were sending me pictures of their loved ones, because everyone was looking for people from the Nova and I was putting up everything. I must have put up 250 stories in the first 48 hours.”

Much of her initial activity was in Hebrew, but Waxman Bakshi – who today describes herself as a content creator and activist – soon switched to English.

“We understood that it was really important to get content out as fast as possible,” she says. “And when I say ‘we’, I mean all the people who had been involved in activism before.”

Her pro-Israel advocacy began at university in Canada, where she first encountered antisemitism.

“It’s the reason I left Canada 20 years ago,” she says.

In 2023, B’nai Brith Canada’s annual audit of antisemitic incidents noted a 109.1 per cent increase on 2022, including several attempted fire-bombings and shootings at Jewish institutions. An initial review of 2024 suggests the situation is worsening.

With Canadian opposition leader Pierre Pollievre[Missing Credit]

“I saw it on my campus, ” she says. “Any person who went to university in Canada knew what was happening.”

She made aliyah, served in the IDF, stumbled on her social media career and even launched her own beauty brand – but her activist roots remained: “Every time there was a little round with Gaza I’d make a video in English and put it up on YouTube, but it was always kind of momentary and I’d always go back to doing beauty.”

Standing up for the hostages on a demo in London[Missing Credit]

Things started to change in May 2021 when Israel launched Operation Guardian of the Walls in response to a barrage of rockets and missiles from Gaza.

“It was the first time I realised that all the brainwashing that had happened on university campuses was snowballing online with social media. And not only was it pro-Palestinian activists, but suddenly beauty and fashion influencers and people who had nothing to do with the conflict were spreading lies about Israel.

“So that’s when I was like ‘OK, I have a platform too – I need to call these people out’.”

She posted about supermodel Bella Hadid and her anti-Israel views, as well as companies that engaged her or waded into the debate in a similar fashion.

“I used my platform to bring awareness in the beauty world of where these two worlds connect,” she explains.

Pivoting from beauty to campaigning came at a price, however.

“I lost 25,000 followers in the first two weeks that I started to incorporate this content,” she tells me.

“A lot of people around me said ‘you shouldn’t do this, it’s going to harm your business, your name, you’ll lose deals.”

But she was resolute.

“I didn’t care,” she says. “What’s the point in having a platform if I’m not using it to do what I really believe in; that’s way more important to me than make-up.”

October 7 led to a major change of gear. Three days after the attack, Waxman Bakshi invited other influencers to her home where they set up “a mini war room”.

“We were all making content in English, French, Spanish. We were interviewing on TV to foreign media, all from my house and running to the shelter every hour in between.

“We understood that it was a matter of time before everyone started condemning Israel, including the UN. We understood that it was really, really important to get content out as fast as possible.”

Then, as the hostility flared up around the world, she decided to leave Israel with her children. She spent three weeks making content and lobbying in France, before moving on to Canada.

“I was a content-making machine,” she says. “I was making video after video after video, and also speaking at communities and high schools and interviewing on TV.”

It was during this time that she heard her cousin was being held hostage in Gaza. So as soon as she returned to Israel, she went to visit Berger’s parents.

“I said ‘why am I not seeing you on TV? Why does nobody know about Agam?’ And they were like ‘we don’t want to be on TV, we’re very private people – can you be the face of the family?’”

She accepted without hesitation and several weeks later joined a delegation to the US Congress. She has spent the past year travelling the world to raise awareness of Berger and the other hostages. Last April she was part of a delegation to the Vatican, alongside Agam’s twin sister Li-yam and an uncle of the Bibas family.

Meeting the pop with Li-Yam Berger, Agam's twin sister[Missing Credit]

“He’s a strictly Orthodox Jew and didn’t want to go into a church, so asked if I could be the voice of the Bibas family,” she said.

“So, when we met with the Pope, Li-yam spoke about Agam and I spoke about the Bibas family, specifically the children.

“I didn’t think I’d feel anything special, as I’m Jewish, but it was a special moment. I felt like here’s someone who’s so influential that just one statement from him could really change the antisemitism we’re feeling all over the world but there was nothing. It was so frustrating.”

Her commitment and high profile have meant time away from her husband and four children, who are aged between five and ten. She has also been subject to considerable abuse.

“If I’m abroad I won’t post a story about where I am. I’ll only put something up when I’m not there any more,” she says.

“I have people who troll me on everything that I post; they write ‘you baby killer’. They troll you, they threaten you, they tell you ‘I love Hitler’. Or ‘next time you’re abroad, be careful, watch out’.”

Israel is now sending far fewer delegations abroad and Waxman Bakshi understands why.

“There were some places where they were just nice and polite but the following day they would forget about it and go back to saying Israel is committing genocide,” she says. “We understand now that France, Germany and the UK are not going to bring the hostages home. It’s really between Israel, Hamas, the US and Qatar.”

For her part, she continues to channel all her energy into lobbying for the hostages’ safe return.

“I have a duty to do everything to have their voice heard,” she says.

“There’s no celebrity in Israel who is directly related to any hostage who is using their platform for the hostages. So for me it became my life’s mission to advocate not only for Agam but for all the hostages.”

Berger was finally released in the ceasefire deal with Hamas in January after 482 days in captivity.

Agam Berger (right) reunites with her parents Shlomi and Merav at an IDF facility next to the Gaza border. (IDF)[Missing Credit]

Waxman Bakshi says the family is immensely relieved and happy that she’s home.

“For 15 months I’d been imagining the moment that I would see her and what I would say, but when I saw her I couldn’t get any words out and for some reason I forgot everything I wanted to say and just hugged her.

“The only thing I could get out was that we fought so hard for you and it was my way of saying ‘I’m sorry that it took so long’.”

She vows to continue fighting for the other hostages and carry on advocating for Israel, adding that it had been a “privilege” to be the voice of Berger’s parents “so they don’t have to go through it”.

“Family members of hostages should not be the ambassadors of the state of Israel – that’s not their job,” she says. “But unfortunately they’ve been put in a position where that’s what they need to do.

“So for me if I could remove that aspect for them, that was the biggest mitzvah that I could do.”