‘There is so much suffering on both sides’, says mother of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of the hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, urged the US to show a more active involvement in the hostage negotiations in a Fox News interview on Sunday.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of the hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, has become one of the most recognizable faces in the United States amidst the hostage crisis.

Her son Hersh, 23, was born in California and moved to Israel, where he was kidnapped from a Nova Music Festival.

On Sunday she interviewed at the American Fox News network, calling on the United States to show more active involvement in negotiations.

"The United States is also among the victims of October 7," she said. "And it cannot see its role as a neutral mediator. Forty-five American citizens were butchered on October 7, and twelve others were taken hostage to Gaza, eight of whom are still held hostage."

Regarding the negotiations, she said, "I think we need to be creative and find a way to move forward from the crisis, for both sides to stop and think about a way forward. If there is a pause in fighting, it will give people time to digest and rethink with reason." She added: "I don't think enough Americans are aware that there are American citizens held hostage by Hamas.” 

"There is an attempt to present the hostages as a monolith, a homogeneous group, but that's not the case. Barely hearing about Arab hostages, and there were also hostages from Thailand, Nepal, and Christian Africans."

Suffering on both sides

In the end, Goldberg-Polin delivered a message saying, "There is so much suffering on both sides, there is no competition here. There are 132 innocent civilians taken hostage from Israel on October 7 suffering in captivity, and there are hundreds of thousands of uninvolved Gazan civilians suffering greatly," she added. "Many people struggle to recognize both of these parallel truths."

Last month Hamas released a video of Hersh, an American-Israeli citizen, marking the first time an American citizen was featured in such a video. His parents approved the release of the video to the Israeli media, and since then, several families have followed suit, seeking to publish portions of these signs of life released since the beginning of the war.

In the video that was released, Hersh is seen after his left hand was amputated, severely injured from gunfire during his kidnapping. "I went out to hang out with my friends, and instead, I found myself fighting for my life, with severe injuries all over my body, after trying to protect myself and other frightened civilians, when there was no one to protect us that day," he said in the video distributed by the terror organization.

Rachel and John, the parents of the hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, responded to the video released by Hamas saying, "We saw the video, and we were relieved to see him alive, while we still worry about his health and the well-being of the other hostages. We ask all intermediaries and parties involved in negotiations to make a courageous decision that will allow us to reunite with our loved one. Hersh, if you're listening, we heard your voice for the first time in 200 days. We love you, stay strong."