Uri Raanan, whose daughter Natalie was released from Hamas captivity on Saturday told Ynet that he "has no idea" where the online rumors came from that they support BDS and online antisemite Shaun King.
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"This is nonsense that does not deserve to be addressed. I was in the Yom Kippur war, I am a decorated IDF veteran, I am a big supporter of Israel, my daughter too. She's not a politician, she doesn't even know what BDS is," he said.
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Judith and Natalie Raanan are freed from Hamas captivity
(Photo: AFP PHOTO / US Embassy in Jerusalem)
According to Uri, who was formerly married to Judith, Natalie will probably arrive in Chicago next week. "I talked to her once since the release, before she went to sleep, because she was terribly tired. She doesn't have a cell phone because it was stolen by Hamas, so it's difficult to communicate with her. What's more, I finally managed to sleep tonight relatively fine."
The family also issued an official response to the online claim that they support King and his anti-Israel positions. "Today we encountered delusional posts on the Instagram page of a man named Shaun King, who turns out to have millions of followers, who claims that our relative Natalie Raanan supports the anti-Israel messages he uploads to his page. We want to make it clear that he is lying. Our family does not and did not have anything to do with him, neither directly nor indirectly. Neither to him nor to anything he claims to represent."
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Uri Raanan and family members react to the release of Judith and Natalie Raanan
(Photo: AP Photo/ Charles Rex Arbogast)
According to the family, "Natalie told us that this morning was the first time in her life that she came across Shaun King's name and his posts, after she finally got a cell phone after two horrific weeks in captivity in Gaza, and was looking for what was written about her while she was gone. Shaun King is trying to hitch a ride on the wide exposure of her kidnapping. It was accepted all over the world and in the US in particular, and the strangest thing is that Natalie and her mother are prominent activists in the Jewish community in Chicago and in a local Chabad, and if Shaun King knew them, he would know it."
The family requested that the public "not share things without checking them in depth, and above all not to believe people who speak for others. The damage that the sharing of these lies does is huge, and the effort of our family and of all the families of the abductees should be focused on bringing them home, and not in fighting the lies that spread like wildfire."
Or Sela, a relative of Judith and Natalie, said that they have "returned from a shocking and difficult experience, the recovery from which will take a long time, both for them and for the rest of the family. We thank President Biden and all those concerned and trust that they will continue to do everything to bring everyone home safely. The relief we feel right now at the release of Judith and Natalie is far beyond what words can describe."
The release of Natalie and Judith Raanan
He added: "We do not have the privilege to celebrate now, just as unfortunately we still do not have the privilege to mourn the family members who were murdered - the late Eviatar Kipnis and the late Avshalom Haran. Now we continue our efforts to return eight more kidnapped family members home: Lilach Kipnis, Shoshan Haran, Adi Shoham, Tal Shoham, Neve Shoham, Yahel Shoham, Sharon Avigdori and Noam Avigdori. And also the abductees of over 200 other families with whom we will not stop working 24 hours a day, until all the abductees return home safely."
Brothers Yuval and Shaked Haran, relatives of Judith and Nathalie, whose eight family members were kidnapped to Gaza, said on Saturday night: "We received the news about the release while we were sitting shiva for our father and after we returned from our uncle's funeral. We can't really be happy right now. Our family is there, We will do everything possible to save them, we can't celebrate with them yet."
US President Joe Biden speaks to released hostages Judith and Natalie Raanan
(From X social media platform)
"Our nephews Yaheli, 3, and Neve, 8, are there," they said. "It's unbelievable that we've already been living like this for two weeks. When we realized that this was the case, little children kidnapped, we said: one, two, or three days. It's just unbelievable that we've already been living this for two weeks."
The two men said that their sister and her family came to the kibbutz for the holiday. "We woke up in the morning and at seven a.m. someone said there was trouble on the border with Gaza. We were sure it was normal, just rocket fire," said the brother. "I immediately took my partner's phone and called my mother, and she answered me again. She whispered, and she never whispers, and said to me: 'We are in the secure room, we are all here, I have to hang up.' At around 10:15 a.m. the last message was from my father who sent: 'Yuvi, we are in big trouble, I hope we will get out of this, we love you'. And my mother sent a heart." The father was murdered, the mother was kidnapped - and the struggle continues.