After more than five months of struggle with the authorities, the Kasau family's protest tent for Hymanut Kasau was erected Tuesday in Jerusalem.
The tent was set up with extensive assistance from Israeli citizens and Jerusalem residents, alongside public figures including MKs Penina Tamano-Shata, Merav Cohen and Roni Malkiel, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yosef Chavilio, and attorneys from the Association for Civil Rights who represented the family before the municipality.
The tent's establishment comes as Israel marks three years since the October 7 attacks, a timing that intensifies the pain and loss accompanying the family.
Tesfaye Kasau, Hymanut's father, delivered pointed and emotional remarks from the tent: "This is a difficult day, a day when we remember the murdered and the fallen. We are in very difficult days for the people of Israel, for those who tomorrow will mark three years since their abduction and were returned, and those who were returned without life. These are days when we mourn and grieve for all who were murdered and all the security personnel, the soldiers who fell, this is a difficult day, a day when we remember them. I wish a complete recovery to those who returned and wish that the memory of those who did not return alive be a blessing. It is good that they came to burial in their land."
The grieving father continued and called on the wider public not to forget his daughter: "Now one hostage remains without us knowing what her fate is, my daughter Hymanut. We want you to remember her and pray that she returns to her family. In addition, we need to do everything so that such events do not repeat themselves. Today we erected a protest tent and we invite the people of Israel to come and visit the tent, to meet us and hear about Hymanut, to pray, to embrace and support and hope for days of security from our enemies outside and inside."
