US ignorance around the hostages is 'shocking,' says parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin

Rachel Goldberg-Polin and John Polin, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is being held hostage in Gaza, expressed disappointment in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper on Wednesday, that the eight dual American-Israeli hostages are given little media attention.

Of the eight dual American-Israeli hostages, five (Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, and Keith Segal) are assumed to be alive, and three (Judith Weinstein Haggai, Gadi Haggai, and Itay Chen) are dead, according to the AJC.

Goldberg-Polin said she found it “shocking that the vast majority of Americans have no idea that there are eight US citizens, currently right now as we are speaking, being held hostage in Gaza.”

Hostages are not a monolithic group

Despite the war being ongoing for 257 days since the time of the interview, she said that most people in America do not know that the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza come from 24 different countries and include Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.

“I very rarely hear anyone advocating for the Muslim Arabs being held or the Thai Buddhists being held or the black African Christians being held.”

“There are Nepalese, Argentinians, Germans, Polish, you just don’t hear it.”

The BBC’s list of hostages includes a 53-year-old Bedouin farmer and his son (his daughter and other son were released), two brothers from Argentina, a Nepalese agriculture student, and a Serbian national, among others.

The world is trying to posit the hostages as a “monolithic homogeneous group of people”, added Goldberg-Polin, which she said is an “absolute disservice and injustice to those people being held.”

Both parents expressed their frustration that the hostages in Gaza received minimal international attention in contrast to hostages in previous incidents.

“I’ve had these memories of when Brittany Griner was being unjustly held,” continued Goldberg-Polin, “and, of course, Evan Gershkovich, who is right now being detained. [These are] household names.”

Evan Gershkovich is a US reporter who was detained by the Russian FSB in March 2023 on suspicion of espionage. He is to be tried behind closed doors on June 26. Brittany Griner, a US basketball player, was detained for ten months in Russia in 2022 after Russian airport officials found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia.

Tapper recalled the response in America when American hostages were being held in Iran, mentioning that many across the country wore yellow ribbons, and the ABC news program Nightline started as a result.

On November 4, 1979, 50 American citizens working at the US embassy in Iran were taken hostage during a siege. Iranian students held the diplomats for 444 days, according to the US Office of the Historian website. Nightline was started four days after the hostage-taking and was originally titled The Iran Crisis–America Held Hostage: Day “xxx”, with xxx relating to the days of captivity.

“The United States is steeped in emancipation, liberty, freedom,” said John Polin, noting that at the same time as the CNN interview, people were celebrating Juneteenth, the annual US holiday to mark the emancipation of enslaved people.

“Americans don’t like people being held against their will, certainly not other Americans, so it’s disappointing that there isn’t more conversation, and it’s surprising because it’s something that is so core to the USA.”

“We have people being held,” he continued, “we’ve got to do everything we can to get them out. And one step of that is awareness. The country should be talking about this, should know about this, should know the 8 names of the Americans who are being held.”

Their only son has been held hostage for 257 daysWatch the full video here: https://t.co/epcsXvwJ0h pic.twitter.com/NpNvyzCHGu

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) June 19, 2024

Tapper asked the two about their recent trip to Washington DC – the eleventh since October 7.

The trip was to a bipartisan meeting, which Goldberg-Polin called “unique.”

John Polin said he was impressed by “how galvanized [the participants] were” to the hostage crisis. He added that the hostages are not “something that should be politicized.”

“This isn’t an issue of democrats versus republicans; the room was saying, this is a human issue, this is something that needs to unite all of us around one cause.”

Protests and politics

Asked about the ongoing protests in Israel, Rachel Goldberg noted that two different groups of people attend protests.

“There are people who are gathering to support the hostage families, and that’s one enormous group that balloons to scores of thousands of people every single Saturday night. There are also groups of people protesting because they think the government is not doing enough, and they feel that it’s too long, it’s too much suffering across the entire region, and it’s time perhaps for different governance to try to take a stab at this situation.”

“We have tried to remain apolitical,” she stressed. “The truth is, we laser-focused on one thing and that is to get our only son home. Our son, who is a civilian, was at a music festival. He had his dominant left arm blown off before he was taken captive. That is where our focus is, and we don’t want to get caught in the weeds of politics.”

“We’re not geopolitical experts, nor are we military tacticians,” she continued. “It really doesn’t matter to me who makes this deal. I don’t care whose name is on it. I don’t care which country is the driving force behind it. I just want my son home.”

She stressed that while she is apolitical, there is no judgment towards anyone who does take a stance and does what they think is the right thing to bring the hostages home.

John Polin also spoke about his feelings towards the protests against the Brooklyn Museum exhibit about the Nova Festival.

“We have no problem with people going out in support of Palestinians, but […] we saw signs in New York saying ‘kill the hostages.’”

“How is that a thing? Why is that a thing?” he questioned.

Jake Tapper reassured the Polins that such people were a “small, loud minority, and most Americans are hoping and praying that Hersh comes home.