Hamas terrorists killed and kidnapped people from around the world — not just Israelis and Jews
Pictures of the hostages are projected outside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem Nov. 6. Of 259 hostages, 28% are foreign nationals, including many who are not Jewish, according to the Israeli embassy in the U.S. Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images
Editor-at-Large Robin Washington November 7, 2023
When Hamas terrorists struck Israel on Oct. 7, Rabbi Mira Rivera said she immediately thought about Thai farm workers near the border with Gaza.
“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re going to find the Thai workers,’” said Rivera, the rabbi-in-residence at New York’s Harlem JCC.
Rivera, who is Filipina American and who frequently visits her husband’s family in Israel, said she’s long noticed Asian workers as she travels the country.
“When we’re shopping or on the bus, our eyebrows meet,” she told me. “My kids see it and say, ‘Oh, Imma’s going to talk to them.’ By the time we get off the bus, we know each other.”
Rivera’s fears for foreign laborers in the border communities attacked by Hamas were all too valid. CNN has reported that at least 32 Thai nationals were murdered in the attack, and estimates of the number of Thais still being held hostage by Hamas range from 14 to 54. The attack also took the lives of Filipino and Nepalese people.
Thousands of foreign nationals live in Israel, many of them on work and student visas. Many hail from Asia but also Africa; two Tanzanians are listed among the 240-plus hostages. Most of Israel’s foreign labor force began to take the place of Palestinian workers in the country after the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.
Einav Hadari, deputy spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, said there were 259 foreign nationals among the 1,400 people killed inside Israel on Oct 7, and 69 among the missing or kidnapped. Reuters has reported a much higher number, 138, of hostages with foreign passports, citing an unnamed Israeli government source. A handful have dual citizenship, including 10 of 116 hostages identified by name in a Nov. 6 BBC report.
Using Hadari’s estimates, that amounts to 18.5% of those murdered and 28% of the missing or kidnapped. In contrast, 27 of the 2,819 people killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11 — less than 1% — were foreign nationals, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fact that many of the victims and hostages are neither Israeli nor Jewish vividly illustrates that in its attack, Hamas displayed no concern for the lives of those with no stake in their territorial dispute.
It’s not just Hamas who doesn’t distinguish between the lives of these workers and those of Israeli Jews. Journalists and social media posts have frequently referred to the attack’s victims as Israelis or Jews. Or as a CNN military analyst, Lt. Gen Mark Hertling, put it: “The objective was to not only kill a lot of Jews, but also to capture Jews.”
Rivera bristles at that thinking. “Some people just want to show Jews, period,” she said. “But we are all interdependent.”
A stronger emphasis on the international nature of the terrorist attack as one against citizens of dozens of countries could have lessened Israel’s isolation as it faces the public relations backlash for its counterstrikes in Gaza, especially as the hostage crisis continues with those foreign nationals still being held.
Rivera’s friend and colleague in Jewish chaplaincy circles, Rabbi Valerie Stessin of Tel Aviv, said the unequal attention isn’t necessarily intentional.
“A foreign worker from Thailand may not have people in Israel” to tell their stories, she said.
Stessin, herself a French-Israeli dual citizen, is very aware of foreign workers. When she vacationed in Thailand last year, she said, the majority of passengers on her flights were Thai. They face stiff odds to receive work visas and usually travel without their families.
Also, she said, frustration and disappointment with the Israeli government’s initial response to the attacks and the continuing hostage crisis has led Israeli families to social media in hopes of learning any information about their loved ones.
“With all the mess, many things have been done by individuals,” she said. “The foreign workers are less connected. But I really don’t think anyone thinks they’re less important.”
Some stories of foreign workers have gotten broad coverage, such as that of a Filipina caretaker who refused to leave her elderly employer’s side and successfully bribed a Hamas terrorist not to take them.
Others were not so lucky.
“I know four have been murdered,” Rivera said of Filipina victims. “They were caregiving and they didn’t leave their elders.”
Some might argue that they were unfortunate collateral damage swept up in an attack targeting Israelis or Jews. But there’s no way the terrorists did not know who the foreign workers were. There are thousands throughout the region.
“Foreign workers are not only in Israel, they’re all over Arab countries,” Rivera said, adding of a trip to Jordan years ago: “I got connected to Filipina workers when I was there. They said, ‘You need a place? Stay with us.’”
Rivera dismisses any idea that the Hamas terrorists didn’t know who they were taking.
“They didn’t say, ‘Oh, she’s of Chinese origin. Maybe we shouldn’t take her,’” she said.
I won’t get into the minds of Hamas’ leaders or those who carried out their orders. But if their fight is with the “illegal Zionist entity” between the river and the sea, there is zero justification for deliberately killing and kidnapping foreign nationals who have absolutely no say in Israel’s policymaking. The only thing it proves for certain is that no lives matter to them.
“It’s not understandable why they took Thai people when the goal was to take Israelis and Jews,” Stessin said. “You could ask why they took babies. Are they really responsible for the situation in Gaza?”
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