The first empty table in Israel appeared in Tel Aviv, in the place that was renamed Hostage Square: first a space of pain for the Israelis taken prisoner by Hamas on 7 October, then a space of waiting when the negotiation with the terrorists, mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar had led to the only truce and the first liberations in November; today is a space for protest, because nothing is known about the negotiations anymore and the anger of the families of the over one hundred and thirty kidnapped prisoners remaining in the Strip is turning into a political struggle. From the first days after the pogroms in the kibbutzim bordering Gaza, a long table in Piazza degli Ostaggi had become the place where absence had become a concrete image and whoever had set it up, with empty chairs with the faces of the hostages hanging on them, perhaps would not have imagined that all of Israel for the feast of Passover would be filled with tables set for someone who would not be able to sit. In Kibbutz Be’eri, more than one hundred people were killed on October 7, thirty were captured, thirteen were released in November, six died in captivity, and eleven still remain in the Strip. The survivors decided to go to Tel Aviv and sit right in the Hostage Square to show all the empty chairs, for now or forever, during the Passover seder.
The first empty table in Israel appeared in Tel Aviv, in the place that was renamed Hostage Square: first a space of pain for the Israelis taken prisoner by Hamas on 7 October, then a space of waiting when the negotiation with the terrorists, mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar had led to the only truce and the first liberations in November; today is a space for protest, because nothing is known about the negotiations anymore and the anger of the families of the over one hundred and thirty kidnapped prisoners remaining in the Strip is turning into a political struggle. From the first days after the pogroms in the kibbutzim bordering Gaza, a long table in Piazza degli Ostaggi had become the place where absence had become a concrete image and whoever had set it up, with empty chairs with the faces of the hostages hanging on them, perhaps would not have imagined that all of Israel for the feast of Passover would be filled with tables set for someone who would not be able to sit. In Kibbutz Be’eri, more than one hundred people were killed on October 7, thirty were captured, thirteen were released in November, six died in captivity, and eleven still remain in the Strip. The survivors decided to go to Tel Aviv and sit right in the Hostage Square to show all the empty chairs, for now or forever, during the Passover seder.
Seder in Hebrew means order, it indicates all the rites and traditions that take place for the holiday and this year, the Israelis decided that their seders would be renamed “non-seders”, because rather than the celebration they take the form of protest, more than order they are the symbol of a country turned upside down by the attack on 7 October. Some tables were set on fire, a “non-seder” was also organized in front of the house of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea. The protesters shouted against the prime minister, demanding an agreement at any cost and instead of pouring the traditional red wine of the party, the table was smeared with paint. The Easter celebration celebrates the return and in the land of absences it is impossible, out of tune, offensive to remember the end of the imprisonments of the past when so many Israelis are still in prison today.
The word “negotiation” has disappeared, after Hamas’ latest refusals to agree to the six-week ceasefire and the release of forty kidnapped prisoners in exchange for the release of a much higher number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and none of the negotiators was able to think of a new proposal. There are no more trips between the emissaries, just a piece of news that could close a communication channel that has so far been important: Qatar is thinking of giving up its role as mediator. Doha believes it is the subject of a smear campaign for its relationship with Hamas, and claims its seriousness in the negotiations. Some exponents of Israeli politics and also members of the intelligence community had instead accused Qatar of not putting enough pressure on the terrorists, but if the Qataris now withdraw from the negotiations, it would be complex to find a new mediator and the most remote of efforts would have to be rebuilt from scratch, at a time when Hamas feels strong enough to attempt a return to the north of the Strip and to reject ceasefire proposals. The hostages’ families follow this news, and the complaints that once concerned only Netanyahu are now spreading to the entire war cabinet, slowly and tactfully towards those who, like former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, paid the war with the loss of a son at the front. Eisenkot was in Hostage Square with the other families, with him there was also Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, no one shouted at them, no one chased them away. Netanyahu is the most distant and least empathetic, but he does not decide alone.
Each family reinterprets the seders in their own way, each one, in addition to the empty chairs, this year has chosen to put different food on the table. This is also a tradition, when the war in Ukraine began in 2014, sunflower seeds appeared in the seders, symbol of the country and also of Kyiv’s resistance.
