Yellow ribbons have been appearing on trees, benches, handrails and doors in Brighton and Hove for weeks. They are a sign that the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas have not been forgotten on the streets of the East Sussex city. The initiative, explains the Yellow Ribbon association of Brighton, was born “to raise public awareness of the hostages held and not allow them to be forgotten”. A theme, say the promoters, “that is very close to our hearts, because some members of our community in Brighton and Hove have relatives still in prison and others brutally killed on 7 October”.
To remember the fate of hundreds of people, the symbolic path of the yellow ribbon was chosen. A gesture shared throughout the world, associated for the first time with the request for the release of hostages in 1979. In that case, the 52 employees of the American embassy were kidnapped, held prisoner by Iranian students during the Khomeini revolution. Their captivity lasted 444 days. That of the 126 Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas has already reached 270. Nine months in which Adam Ma’anit, a resident of Hove, has never stopped thinking about his cousin Tsachi Idan. On October 7, Palestinian terrorists dragged Tsachi away from his home in the kibbutz Nahal Oz, after murdering his daughter Maayan. The girl had just turned 18, Ma’anit recalled in a recent commemoration organized in Brighton with the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. “The balloons from her birthday party were still in the house when the terrorists entered.” After the Hamas men broke in, Mayaan “tried to help her father hold the door closed. They shot her in the head and she died in his arms. She had just started her life as a young adult when she was cruelly murdered. Tsachi was dragged away by the terrorists with his daughter’s blood still on his hands and clothes, as he desperately tried to save her life.”
In order not to forget this tragedy and all the victims of October 7, Ma’anit and his wife Heidi Bachram have started their campaign to raise awareness in Brighton and Hove. In addition to marking some places with yellow tape, they have created a small memorial. For weeks, Ma’anit, his wife and other friends have been there and remembering the name of a victim. “We do it every evening with a service,” Ma’anit told the Jewish Chronicle website. “The memorial has many different visitors and we are often thanked for being there, because it is a place where we can all come together and mourn the victims of October 7. It has become a landmark for the city.”
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