The ban on entering the Knesset that had been imposed on Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker and a leading figure in the fight for hostages held in the Gaza Strip, was lifted on Tuesday . Zangauker is fiercely fighting for the signing of a ceasefire agreement within the coastal enclave – an agreement that would open the door to the repatriation of captives.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana announced after their meeting that Zangauker, who had been declared non-grata person for more than a week, could once again access Parliament. However, he warned that in the event of “violation of the rules”, she could be banned from entry again.
Zangauker, however, indicated that she would not change anything in her activism, declaring, after her meeting with Ohana, that she would “continue to echo the cries of Matan and the other hostages everywhere, including within this institution, until they all return.”
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A fervent and open critic of the government due to the latter’s inability to obtain the release of her son after fifteen months of captivity in Gaza, Zangauker was banned from entering the Knesset due to the “disturbances” she was experiencing. originally when she took part in debates, noted the office responsible for Parliament security.
The day before her interview with Ohana, she had tried again – in vain – to enter the building to attend the commission sessions, where the captives’ families often call for a deal to be reached.
Ohana said he had “a good discussion” with the grieving mother, stressing that she had not been targeted because of her anti-government activism.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana arriving at a Likud meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In a statement, Amir Ohana said the Knesset had shown great flexibility towards the hostages’ relatives and had avoided imposing sanctions on them despite behavior that “would, in a normal period, merit a long ban on entry to the Knesset.
Which does not mean that there are not red lines and they have sometimes been crossed,” he added. “It was only after several warnings that the offenders were punished. »
“We can’t judge a person until we’re in their shoes – and we’re not,” he continued.
This ban on access to Parliament, he continued, “aims to ensure compliance with the procedural rules of the Knesset…so that the Knesset can continue to fulfill its role as a legislative branch and as a government control tool. If Zangauker wants to continue sharing her ideas, she can do so here in the Knesset, as she has done since the start of the war, without breaking the rules.”
In a statement after his meeting with Ohana, Zangauker said: “I will continue to demand that decision-makers bring my son Matan and all the hostages home. »
“My son Matan is alive and if they don’t bring him back now, he will die,” she said.
Zangkauker explained that she told Ohana that “if it is possible to reach a partial agreement, it is possible to reach a comprehensive agreement” to ensure that the captives will be released.
A reference to the current ceasefire negotiations – negotiations which have largely revolved around a proposed three-phase deal. It provides that “humanitarian” cases, including women, children and the infirm, will be released first. This will be followed by Israeli men of age to serve in the army. At the end of this second phase, Hamas will return the bodies of those who were killed during the pogrom of October 7 or who died in captivity.
Under these parameters, Matan Zangauker would not be released during the first phase of the agreement.
Hostage Matan Zangauker speaking in a Hamas propaganda video released on December 7, 2024. (Screenshot/Telegram)
Last month, Hamas released a propaganda video bringing the first sign of life for Matan Zangauker, fourteen months after he was kidnapped from his home on Kibbutz Nir Oz while he was with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky. The latter was released at the end of November 2023 as part of a one-week truce agreement.
In this apparently forced propaganda video, Matan declared that he and his fellow prisoners “die a thousand times a day,” adding that he saw how hard his mother worked to bring him back to her.
The hostages were kidnapped in Israel on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas carried out a pogrom in southern Israel – the gunmen massacred 1,200 people, the majority civilians. Of the 251 hostages who were forcibly taken to Gaza that day, 96 remain in captivity, and many are no longer alive.
