Day: February 17, 2025

HOSTAGES SQUARE

Hostages Square in Tel Aviv could so easily be called Sombre Square as it captures the mood and exudes the anxiety of a nation

While Tel Aviv has notable popular public squares like ‘Dizengoff Square’, ‘Habima Square’ and ‘Rabin Square’ – all associated with both the history and cultural life of Israel’s most vibrant city – its newest named Hostages Square is probably today, the most familiar to people across the world. It is not surprising why.

Located on the city’s King Saul Boulevard in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Hostages Square is seen daily on international TV news networks as people from across Israel congregate on this now sacred ground to demand the return of the hostages held in cruel captivity in Gaza. The site of daily press conferences and constant rallies about the hostage situation following Hamas’ brutal massacre on October 7, Hostages Square is not only a place in Tel Aviv, it is a place in the heart of Jewish people around the world.

One of the many thousands who visit Hostages Square every day, was photojournalist Harold Silber, a former South African, now resident in Netanya, Israel. Below is his personal narrative as seen through his camera lens. His focus is on the people – their postures and their expressions as they convey anxiety, hope, fear and the moments of joy, when news breaks of a hostage release. It is more of this welcome news, that the message from Hostages Square reverberates across Israel to the entire world.

David E. Kaplan
Editor, Lay of the Land

By Harold Silber

Hostages Square, a public plaza in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, has become a place of gathering, commemoration, protest, hope, mourning, prayer, and vigilance, bringing hundreds of people together since the horrific attacks of October 7.

Clutching a dog-tag and a yellow “Bring Them Home” ribbon, an attendee at Hostages Square watches a live TV broadcast of the release of three hostages last Saturday

Emotions run high during hostage-release broadcasts at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. The sharing of emotions creates a bond between the many who gather, contrasting elation with pain, and hope with despair.

Teddy bears with embroidered messages have become a poignant symbol of the heartbreak of the hostages and the families left behind. Limor Elishoov holds an armful of her teddy bears during a hostage-release broadcast at Hostages Square.

Yellow Ribbons first became popular as a symbol of public support for Americans held hostage in Iran in 1979. Now, as worn here at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, they have become a symbol of hope for millions of people around the world, in the aftermath of the terrible attacks and the capture of hostages by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.

A heartfelt gesture highlights the mix of emotions felt by attendees at a hostage-release broadcast event at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.

“Unbelievable, unacceptable, unbearable”, reads the embroidered message on a heart held by a blindfolded teddy bear in a cage, in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.

The sight of a released hostage, seen on a giant TV screen in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, evokes a gesture of hope and relief for a yellow-ribboned observer.

The slogan – “LET THEM GO” – on a t-shirt in Hostages Square echoes the ancient injunction of Exodus, reflected in the weary eyes of an observer at a hostage-release broadcast.

Tunnel Vision – a replica of a Hamas terror tunnel at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv captures the grim conditions endured by hostages taken by terrorists during the attacks of October 7, 2023.

Jubilation greets the release of Naama Levy, one of four hostages released from Hamas captivity on a recent Saturday at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. On the morning of 7 October 2023, during the Hamas attack on Israel, Naama was abducted from the IDF surveillance base at Nahal Oz near the Gaza–Israel barrier.

Framed by posters of hostages, an attendee at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv reacts to the televised release of a group of hostages.

Wearing an Israeli flag and a ‘Bring them Home’ ribbon, a furry faithful friend takes a break at a recent hostage-release gathering in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.

A place of tears, joy, hope, righteous anger and above all, the spirit embodied by Am Yisrael Chai, Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square is the eternal reminder that in spite of it all, Israel is alive.



About the photojournalist:

Harold Silber Born in South Africa, Harold made aliyah to Israel in 2010. “With a deep love for this land, I capture and share its stories through photography and video. My work, followed by over 10,000 on Facebook, reflects Israel’s beauty, resilience, and spirit.”  Harold resides in the Mediterranean coastal city of Netanya, Israel.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 17 February 2025

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond.

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What’s happening in Israel today? See from every Monday – Thursday LOTL’s The Israel Brief broadcasts and on our Facebook page and YouTube by seasoned TV & radio broadcaster, Rolene Marks familiar to Chai FM listeners in South Africa and millions of American listeners to the News/Talk/Sports radio station WINA, broadcasting out of Virginia, USA.

THE ISRAEL BRIEF- 10 – 13 February 2025
(Click on the blue title)



Lay of the Land’s  ‘Pick of the Week’ photo

EMERGING FROM DARK TUNNELS

Tunnels to Stages. Contrary to Hamas’ façade of normalcy at its choregraphed on-stage hostage handovers,
details emerge of torture, starvation and being held in locations full of lice, bedbugs, mold and mildew.



Articles

Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.

(1)

IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN ON YOUR WATCH

You swore Never Again – but it is happening on your watch!
By Rolene Marks

Height of Hypocrisy. While participating mournfully at ceremonies across the world to commemorate 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, world leaders revealed their true colours by allowing antisemitism to run rampant in their countries leading to Jewish citizens questioning where their futures may safely lie.

IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN ON YOUR WATCH
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

THE RED CROSS AND THE RED HEADS

Nowhere is the failure of the International Red Cross Red Cross more vivid than in its abandonment of the most vulnerable  hostages – Shiri Bibas and her two red head kids!
By Jonathan Feldstein

Symptomatic of the Savagery.  Failing to help Israeli hostages held in captivity in Gaza, the Red Cross shamefully
serves as a “glorified taxi service” for Hamas in cynically choreographed handover ceremonies. Meanwhile,
a distraught nation waits news of the fate of two young ‘red-head’ kids, one still a baby, and their mother.  

THE RED CROSS AND THE RED HEADS
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

ISRAEL ACCUSED FOR COLLAPSE OF THE ‘INTERNATIONAL WORLD ORDER’

Directing blame at Israel instead of the murdering thugs that govern Gaza, the accuser unintentionally exposes the true nature of global moral decline – antisemitism!
By Lawrence Nowosenetz

World out of Order! Adhering with a 2000-year shocking history of Jews commonly used as scapegoats for a plethora of the world’s
misfortunes, the Jewish state today – as it seeks to protects its people in a defensive war against evil emanating from Gaza –
stands accused for collapsing the world order.  Go figure!

ISRAEL ACCUSED FOR COLLAPSE OF THE ‘INTERNATIONAL WORLD ORDER’
(Click on the underlined title)




(4)

NAZIS AS NEIGHBORS

Uncovering uncomfortable truths of how and why Nazis found allies in the suburbia of the USA after their gruesome pasts were uncovered.
Book Review by Dr. Efraim Zuroff

School for Scandal. Reinhold Kulle seemed like a typically perfect US school employee until his retirement neared and his long-concealed secret as being a member of the SS, and a guard at a brutal slave labor camp during WW II came to light. Although Nazis loomed in the American consciousness as evil epitomized, why did some in American suburbia rise to defend a war criminal?

NAZIS AS NEIGHBORS
(Click on the blue title)



LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).