Mother who saved daughter from Hamas terrorists inspires new grassroots movement

A hostage who saved her child from Hamas terrorists has been hailed as “the inspiration” behind a new female-led movement to combat terror.

Yarden Roman-Gat, 35, jumped out of a Hamas terrorist’s car while holding her three-year-old daughter, Geffen, with her husband Alon.

While running, she handed her daughter to her husband, hoping he could run faster than her, family friend Danielle Gallia-Kind told the audience at the Tribe of Life launch event in Finchley.

“I keep imaging that she told him: ‘Go. Save her’.Somehow, it worked and Geffen is safe and Alon is safe. Yarden gave Geffen life for the second time.

“But Yarden was taken hostage. She doesn’t even know that Geffen survived.”

Gallia-Kind, who is Israeli, said that the new grassroots movement was “a spontaneous international movement of mothers and allies of motherhood, united urgently and organically against terror and extremism and the risk that they and the silence around them pose to all the children of the world”.

She said that the most pressing issue was calling for the release of the hostages. “Regardless of where we come from, we all understand that the first act towards a world worthy of continuing to bring new life into is the immediate release of all the hostages that were taken on October 7.”

She called on the diverse audience to find allies among women’s rights organisations and politicians.

She said: “In the darkest moment of her life, Yarden was able to reshape a dead end into a crossroad. She found a tiny crack to a possible future for her child and gave everything she had to make it possible.”

“We are here today, Yarden, as we are trying to learn from you how to change dead ends into crossroads, to find a tiny crack, to see a possibility of a future and to act like you did.”

The audience at New North London Synagogue also heard from Thomas Hand, the father of nine-year-old hostage Emily Hand and Iris and Tuval Haim, the mother and brother of hostage Yotam Haim, 28.

Iranian activists Vahid Beheshti and Lily Moo also spoke, in addition to Dr Chloe Pinto, a specialist in critical antisemitism, at the event hosted by JC journalist Nicole Lampert.

Judy Peritz Wynne, one of the organsiers, told the JC: “We are trying to make the movement universal. Mothers are part of the tribe of the living, not part of the tribe of death.”

Audience member Alex said afterwards: “It’s important to hear the voice of women, who are interested in love and peace.”

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