As he looked at a photograph projected onto a screen at a Chanukah celebration at 10 Downing Street on Monday evening, Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s voice cracked.

It showed him as prime minister standing in front of a boy in a blue school uniform and a kippah at a Chanukah celebration at Downing Street a decade before.

That boy, Lord Cameron revealed, was Nathanel Young, a member of the choir of the Beit Shvidler school in Edgware which had just sung the traditional Chanukah anthem, Maoz Tzur.

As an adult, he became known as the British IDF volunteer killed at the age of 19 by Hamas during the October 7 attacks.

Flanked by Nathanel’s bereaved parents, Nicky and Chantal, and his sister, Miriam, Lord Cameron delivered a moving tribute.

“When I met him here, that boy was a pupil at a very good primary school,” the Foreign Secretary said. “Ten years later he was murdered by Hamas, defending his kibbutz, and his family are here tonight to stand with us as we mourn that beautiful boy.

“Here was a proud soldier, a proud musician, and a proud Jew, who went home to serve his country, only to be murdered by a brutal bunch of terrorists.”

The announcement came as British citizen Nathanel Young who was serving in the IDF was killed by Hamas terrorists (Photo: Facebook)

Afterwards, Nicky and Chantal Young told the JC that they had made Aliyah just three weeks ago. “Being in Israel has helped us to deal with our grief,” Nicky said. “People there have been so supportive.’

His parents spoke warmly of Nathanel after his appearance as a nine-year-old at Downing St, adding that since he visited for Chanukah, his musical career had continued: “He was known as the DJ soldier,” his father went on. “That made him quite well known. Some of the shells and rockets that have been used during the war have ‘DJ Soldier’ written on them in his memory.”

Chantal Young said: “We lost our beautiful son who went to the army just over a year ago. It was his dream. But we take some comfort from the fact that we know he died doing a good job.”

Having lit the shamash, the candle used to light all the others, Lord Cameron began his speech by repeating comments he made when he was appointed Foreign Secretary last month, that when he was prime minister, he had had to see and deal with “very bad things”, including the beheading of British hostages held by ISIS.

But this time, he added: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as terrible as what I saw at Kibbutz Be’eri” - which he visited during a trip to Israel two weeks ago.

David Cameron, the new UK foreign secretary, and former prime minister, views a home destroyed in last month's Hamas attack with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen (C) on November 23, 2023 at kibbutz Be'eri, Israel. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

“You could tell what a beautiful place this was,” Lord Cameron went on, “and here they went from house to house, leaving blood all over the floors, to places where there were children killed in front of their parents.” This, he said, “was something you can’t forget.”

He said he wanted his words to be heard as three things: “a memorial to those killed by Hamas, and a vigil for those still held hostage and, equally important, a statement of “defiance” to antisemitism in Britain.

“We have seen appalling outbreaks of antisemitism since October 7,” Lord Cameron said. “It drives me as mad as I’m sure it does you to see people carrying banners and chanting ‘from the river to the sea’, because that implies genocide.

“We want Jewish people in our country to feel loved, to feel welcome, and we value the Jewish community, the contribution you make, and we want to drive out antisemitism.

He said found the claim that Israel and Hamas were in some way morally equivalent because of the Palestinian killed during the war equally infuriating. “Israel uses rockets to defend its people,” Lord Cameron said. “Hamas uses people to defend its rockets.”

Also present was Noam Sagi, the British-Israeli son of Ada Sagi, 75, the peace activist kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and freed at the end of last month, Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.
“It’s great that Ada is back in Israel, although not at her home because it was destroyed,” Lord Cameron said. “And now we’ve got to keep the pressure up until all the hostages are released.”

Speaking of his mother, Noam Sagi, a psychotherapist, said the fact that Ada spoke fluent Arabic had helped her deal with her ordeal. Nevertheless, it had made a profound impact: “She is a 75-year-old woman dragged out of her home by force and kept in a way that was degrading and inhumane.”

He revealed that like some of the child hostages, she had been branded by the terrorists, by having her leg pressed against the hot exhaust pipe of a motorcycle: “They learned that from the Nazis. They thought they needed to do that to mark them so they wouldn’t run away.”

In her speech, Ambassador Hotovely said October 7 had changed Israel, the Jewish community and its security paradigm “forever”. She said she wanted to express a “huge thank you for the support we’ve had from the British government”, and she thanked Lord Cameron, especially for visiting the kibbutz.

After the speeches, Eliav Stasler, 16, a sixth former at Immanuel College, sang a haunting, solo rendition of the traditional prayer for IDF soldiers.

The event was organised by Conservative Friends of Israel and its honorary president, Lord Polak.

Lord Polak told the JC he had found the event “special, emotional and extraordinary,” and thanked Lord Cameron for enabling “the honour and privilege of being able to host the parents. I want to pay tribute to him for his sensitive and profound understanding and compassion.”