Latest news with #JudihWeinsteinHaggai
National Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- National Post
Alan Kessel: Canada's silence after Judih Weinstein Haggai's murder has been a national shame
Judih Weinstein Haggai was a Canadian. A teacher, a poet, a peace activist. She was also a victim of Hamas's October 7 massacre, murdered — alongside her husband Gadi Haggai — by terrorists who violated every principle of humanity and international law. Article content Her death should have shaken this country to its core. Her name should have been remembered in our schools, our Parliament, our streets. Instead, Judih was nearly forgotten. Article content Article content There is a quiet shame in how Canada responded to her murder. While she and Gadi lay dead, their remains taken into Gaza — our leaders equivocated. When it mattered most — when Canadians were kidnapped, raped and slaughtered — Canada's political voice was cautious, hedged, and absent. And now, after that moral failure, we watch in disbelief as the government moves to restore funding to support a 'reconstructed' Hamas-led Gaza under the guise of humanitarianism, and to recognize a Palestinian state without a single assurance that terrorism will cease or that Canadian lives will be protected. Article content Article content Judih had devoted her life to peace. Her work as a teacher reflected a belief in dialogue, education, and coexistence. She was everything we say we value: compassionate, thoughtful, engaged. But her Canadian identity and her Canadian death were treated as inconvenient. Her story didn't fit the narrative that had taken hold — one in which nuance is unwelcome, and moral clarity is drowned in political calculation. Article content Article content Her body and that of her husband were finally recovered from Khan Yunis in a special operation by the Israeli military — retrieved from the territory of their murderers, where they had been discarded and hidden for over 600 days. The terrorists who held their remains were members of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement — the same group that kidnapped and murdered Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir. That is who we are dealing with: not freedom fighters, not a resistance, but sadistic murderers who hold the bodies of grandparents and babies as bargaining chips in a depraved game of political leverage. Article content Article content We are right to feel profound sorrow, and we are right to feel anger, not only at the terrorists who killed Judih, but at the silence that followed. When a Canadian peace activist is murdered by genocidal extremists, and our government cannot even summon the decency to name the crime, or the courage to defend her memory, we have lost more than lives. We have lost our compass.
05-06-2025
- Politics
Israel recovers bodies of Canadian Israeli Judih Weinstein Haggai and husband held by Hamas
Israel's military recovered the bodies of two hostages, Canadian Israeli Judih Weinstein Haggai and her husband, Israeli American Gadi Haggai, who were held by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. The Israeli army said in a statement that the bodies of the husband and wife were recovered in a special operation from the Khan Younis area in the Gaza Strip. Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the dear families. Our hearts ache for the most terrible loss. May their memory be blessed, Netanyahu said in a statement. Kibbutz Nir Oz announced the deaths of Weinstein Haggai, 70, and Haggai, 72, both of whom had Israeli and U.S. citizenship, in December 2023. The Israeli military said they were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and taken into Gaza by the Mujahideen Brigades, the small armed group that it said had also abducted and killed Shiri Bibas and her two small children. Weinstein Haggai grew up in Canada and held Canadian and U.S. citizenship. She was born in New York state but moved to Toronto at the age of three, and then moved to Israel 20 years later to live with Haggai. She was a mother of four and a grandmother of seven. 56 hostages still held by Hamas An Israeli group formed after Oct. 7, the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, expressed gratitude for the development in a statement. The return is painful and heartbreaking, yet it also brings healing to our uncertainty, the statement read. "Their return reminds us all that it is the state's duty to bring everyone home, so that we, the families, together with all the people of Israel, can begin the process of healing and recovery. WATCH l Weinstein Haggai's niece spoke to CBC News in 2023 about her aunt's strength, character: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? 'Sleepless nights' for family of Canadian missing since Oct. 7 Hamas attacks Ali Weinstein, who spoke about her aunt Judih Weinstein Haggai in an exclusive interview with CBC's Heather Hiscox, says her family has 'no information' about their beloved relative — who is believed to be among those being held in Gaza. Weinstein Haggai was among several Canadian citizens (new window) killed in the Oct. 7 attacks. Israel believes there are still 56 hostages held by Hamas, with fewer than half believed to be alive. The hostages' forum group cited that number in its statement, calling on the warring sides to facilitate their return. There is no need to wait another 608 agonizing days for this. The mission can be completed as early as tomorrow morning, the group said. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7 assault in which Hamas-led gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, by Israeli tallies. In the subsequent fighting, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, local health authorities say. Thomson Reuters with files from CBC News and The Associated Press
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Bodies of two hostages taken in Hamas's 7 October attack recovered, Benjamin Netanyahu says – Israel-Gaza war live
Update: Date: 2025-06-05T07:33:56.000Z Title: Israel PM says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza Content: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the bodies of two Israelis killed in Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack and held in Gaza had been returned to Israel. Netanyahu said the remains of Judih Weinstein Haggai and Gad Haggai were recovered and returned to Israel in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency. According to the Associated Press (AP). He said in a statement: Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the dear families. Our hearts ache for the most terrible loss. May their memory be blessed. Kibbutz Nir Oz announced the deaths of Weinstein, 70, and Haggai, 72, in December 2023. The military said they were killed in the 7 October 2023 attack and that their bodies were recently recovered from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The couple were taking an early morning walk near their home in kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of 7 October 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border and rampaged through several army bases and farming communities. In the early hours of the morning, Weinstein was able to call emergency services and let them know that she and her husband had been shot and send a message to her family. In other developments: A US- and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in Gaza pushed back the reopening of its facilites set for Thursday, as the Israeli army warned that roads leading to distribution centres were 'considered combat zones'. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) closed its aid distribution centres after a string of deadly incidents near sites it operates that drew sharp condemnation from the United Nations. Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 10 people in the battered Palestinian territory on Thursday as the military keeps up an intensified offensive. 'Ten martyrs so far resulting from Israeli strikes since dawn,' agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that they had targeted an area where displaced civilians were sheltering in the southern city of Khan Younis and houses in Gaza City and the central town of Deir el-Balah. UN security council members criticised the US on Wednesday after it vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington said undermined ongoing diplomacy. 'Today, the United States sent a strong message by vetoing a counterproductive UN security council resolution on Gaza targeting Israel,' secretary of state Marco Rubio said in a statement after Wednesday's 14 to 1 vote. Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 48 people across the Gaza Strip, including 14 in a single strike on a tent sheltering displaced people, the civil defence agency said. A day earlier, the civil defence and the International Committee of the Red Cross said 27 people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF site in southern Gaza. The military said the incident was under investigation.
