Hungary’s President In Israel Shocked About Plight Hostages
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The president of Hungary, from where tens of thousands of Jews emigrated to Israel since World War Two, expressed concern about Hungarian Jewish hostages held by Hamas on Sunday and said Israel “has the right to defend itself.”
President Katalin Novák, a devoted Christian, made the comments in Jerusalem, where she met her Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog and later relatives of Hungarian citizens whom Hamas had taken hostage.
“What had been happening to Israel could not be indifferent to us Hungarians,” she stressed. “Israel has the right to defend itself,” Novák told Herzog, condemning the Hamas attack that killed some 1,400 people ranging from Holocaust survivors to toddlers and babies.
She called the horrors of October 7, known in Israel as “Black Sabbath,” shocking.
Novák recalled that the “terrorist acts” were “unanimously condemned” by all Hungarians regardless of their political orientation, and they stood in solidarity with Israel. The Hungarian government recently banned a pro-Palestinian protest, citing terrorism legislation.
Novák told Herzog that Hungary stood up for Israel. She told him, and later the relatives of the Hungarian hostages, that the suffering of the families was for her as a mother of three children “particularly painful.”
Novák expressed her “heartfelt solidarity” to the relatives of the hostages and listened first to the story of a mother whose daughters, aged 8 and 15, had been kidnapped by Hamas from a kibbutz.
FATHER TAKEN
She then learned about a 47-year-old father taken by Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by Hungary. Hamas reportedly told him that his wife and two small children would be left alive “if he agreed to go ‘voluntarily’ with Hamas.”
The man’s family members told Novák they “had no information about him ever since.” The president said she promised the families that she would do all she could “for the release of all of the Israeli hostages” held by Hamas.
Separately, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said he spoke by phone with Qatar’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Soltan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi, to ask for his intervention.
“I told my colleague that we know of five people also holding Hungarian citizenship who had been taken hostage and asked for his help in freeing them,” said Szijjártó, adding that the Qatari minister had pledged his help.
Hungary, with one of Eastern Europe’s largest Jewish communities, has close ties with Israel since full diplomatic relations were restored in 1989 following the collapse of communism.
This year, it has begun celebrating the Jewish role in the 150th anniversary of Budapest, the capital, and the 75th anniversary of Israel.
Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, and many survivors left for Israel.
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