Although Purim is a holiday associated with joy, this year, the occasion was shrouded in solemnity as 134 Israeli hostages are still held in Gaza.
Before the war, Jerusalem planned to have its first Purim parade in 42 years.
After October 7th, parade planners decided to go ahead with the event, but to give special emphasis to hostage families raising awareness about Israeli captives.
WATCH: Hostage Families Raise Awareness at Jerusalem Purim Parade
“This is another shocking incident where UK government employees target Jews and discriminate against them because they oppose Israel’s actions in defending itself in Gaza,” says local Jewish leader
Two Israeli brothers who survived the Oct. 7th Nova Festival massacre were reportedly harassed by staff at a British airport, who told the men they needed additional screening to ensure they wouldn’t “do what they’re doing in Gaza” in the UK.
Border Force officers immediately began harassing the men after they produced Israeli passports upon landing in Manchester Airport, according to a letter about the incident from the watchdog group Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region (JRCGM).
The pair explained to the officers that they had traveled to the UK to speak about their personal story of survival during the massacre, and had been invited by a non-profit organization raising money for October 7th survivors.
They were then detained and questioned, with their entry to the UK delayed by more than two hours.
When asked why they were subject to such strict screening, the officers replied that they “had to make sure that you are not going to do what you are doing in Gaza over here.”
In a video which captured part of the incident, the officers are seen speaking in an “aggressive, unnecessary and demeaning tone” towards the Israelis, the JRCGM wrote.
Officers can be heard scolding the brothers, telling them to “keep quiet, look at me, are you clear with that? We are the bosses, not you” in the clip.
“This is another shocking incident where UK government employees target Jews and discriminate against them because they oppose Israel’s actions in defending itself in Gaza,” said North West Friends of Israel co-chair Raphi Bloom in a media statement.
“In this case it was a border control officer and last week it was nurses at one of Manchester’s largest hospital. Jews are increasingly scared to identify themselves in public places.
“The UK government has promised to act on extremism and Jew hate but so far these are empty words. These civil servants needs to be sacked and the police investigate them for antisemitism immediately.”
Home Secretary James Cleverly posted on his X account that the incident would be investigated.
Nineteen-year-old Liri Albag cleaned houses and subsisted on food scraps.
At least one Israeli hostage was kept as a domestic slave rather than being thrown immediately into a Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip on October 7, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
Nineteen-year-old Liri Albag was forcibly taken from her kibbutz, Nahal Oz, when some 3,000 terrorists invaded some two dozen agricultural villages, towns, and a dance rave, brutally murdered 1,200 and kidnapped 253 people, sparking the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Her family has not seen or heard from her since, they told the British daily in an interview.
They did reveal for the first time that some of the 86 Israeli hostages who were released in November in exchange for a week-long ceasefire and over 240 Palestinian security prisoners had told them that they had seen and talked to her.
They told the Albags that Liri had been forced to clean toilets for a family and cook food that she was forbidden to eat. She subsisted on scraps, and was permitted to take her first shower only after 37 days.
She was not alone, at least for the first few days. The family had also held four other teens from the kibbutz – Naama Levy, Daniela Gilboa, Karina Ariev and Agam Berger.
The family received confirmation from the army, Albag’s mother, Shira, said, as soldiers had found the room in which they had been imprisoned. They found traces of blood in the room and identified the young women through their DNA.
The IDF released a photo of the room to the Daily Mail, and Shira’s reaction had first been a positive one.
“At first when I saw it, I was happy because she was in a child’s room,” Shira said. “There were kids’ clothes in the cupboard and it gave me a little relief that she wasn’t in a scary place.”
“But then,” she continued, “I understood that she is with a family – they kidnapped her, not Hamas. It’s the equivalent of me keeping someone else’s children locked in my house.”
Over a thousand civilians followed the Hamas fighters into Israel on October 7 in a second wave of murdering, kidnapping and pillaging the border communities.
The released women saw Albag only after she had been transferred to their location, and if her conditions were bad in the civilian home, they only got worse under direct Hamas control.
“She was in a tunnel at that time, 40 meters under the ground, with no air, sunlight, a lot of humidity, no toilet, no water,” Shira noted. “She was drinking salt water from the sea and not much food. That was 112 days ago. From then, we have heard nothing.”
The interview took place on the holiday of Purim, which celebrates the miraculous rescue some 2,000 years ago of the Jewish people from a Persian vizier who had wanted to eradicate the nation from the half of the world that his king controlled.
Almog’s sister, Shay, said that history was trying to repeat itself.
“It is the same today,” she said. “Hamas wanted to kill us all on October 7.”
The family is hoping against hope that the latest hostage negotiations will bear fruit and they will be able to greet Liri at home in their personal, post- Purim miracle.
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