The parents of American hostages being held by Hamas said on the third night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) that calling for the hostages’ release was “not a political issue”.
Rachel Goldberg Pollin and her husband, John Pollin spoke He spoke about how 109 people, including his son, Hersh Goldberg Pollin, are still being held hostage by Hamas, and that wanting the hostages “to return home” is “not a political issue.”
Goldberg and Pollins’ speeches came as anti-Israel protesters gathered outside the convention to protest the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
“This is a political convention,” John Pollin said in the couple’s address at the convention, “but the need to bring home our only son and all our precious hostages is not a political issue. This is a humanitarian issue.”
“Bring them home!” chanted the crowd at the Democratic National Convention as John Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin, who was taken hostage on October 7, took to the stage in Chicago. https://t.co/2r4Nmz4vqa pic.twitter.com/upKD75L47z
— ABC News (@ABC) August 22, 2024
Hersh was last seen by her parents on October 6, 2023, the night before Hamas terrorists launched their attack on Israel. At around 11pm that day, Hersh and a friend went camping. According to of The Israel Times.
On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Hirsch’s mother received two text messages from him saying he loved his parents. One said, “I’m sorry.”
“On October 7, Hersh and her best friend Anel went to a music festival in southern Israel that was advertised as celebrating peace, love, and unity,” Rachel Goldberg Pollin explained during the convention. “They also went to celebrate Hersh’s 23rd birthday.”
The Goldberg-Polins eventually discovered that their son and his friend, Anel Shapira, had attended the Supernova festival, where 364 people were brutally murdered.
Hersh and Shapira, “along with 27 other young festival-goers,” sought refuge in a roadside rocket shelter. While inside, Hamas terrorists began throwing grenades at Hersh, causing him to lose his left arm below the elbow. Hersh eventually had to wear a tourniquet around his arm.
The Hamas terrorists then asked the people at the shelter to come with them, and Hirsch was loaded into the back of a pickup truck along with others.
“We have been dependent on our other parent ever since,” Rachel Goldberg Pollin added. “Anyone who is or has had a parent can imagine the anguish and misery that John and I and all our hostage families are enduring.”
