Protesters rally outside UN Secretary-General’s residence to demand action on hostages

New York: Demonstrators gathered outside the official residence of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in Manhattan on Friday morning to criticise him for not doing enough to free the 239 hostages Israel says were abducted during Hamas’ Oct 7 terrorist attack.

They strung masses of paper butterflies — one for each hostage — on a tree in front of Guterres’ residence, near the UN headquarters, and took turns reading out the hostages’ names. Some protesters held up flyers showing the faces and names of hostages and labeled “kidnapped” in capital letters.

Omer Lubaton-Granot, who helped organize the event, is the head of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in New York, an advocacy group formed after Oct 7. Four of his family members are hostages. He directed some of his remarks to the crowd at Guterres.

“You have the power and the ability to influence and bring them back home, and we’re here, and we’ll come back here each and every week to remind you,” Lubaton-Granot said.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, has called on Guterres to resign over remarks he has made criticizing Israel for its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has caused widespread destruction and, according to the Hamas-run health authorities there, left more than 11,000 people in Gaza dead. Guterres has in recent days reiterated his condemnation of the Oct. 7 attacks, during which Israel says some 1,200 victims were killed, and has called “for the immediate, unconditional and safe release of hostages held in Gaza.”

The protesters Friday said he had not done enough.

“I want him to know that we hold him responsible” for helping bring the hostages home, said Susan Lax, 65, whose friend, Vivian Silver, a peace activist, is among those who were abducted.

Rostic Gorbatov, 36, stressed the innocence of the hostages and that their release needed to be an immediate priority for Guterres and the world. He said peace depended on their safe return.

“We’re here to stand strong, because this is not a time to tremble, this is not a time to be quiet — this is a time to scream and yell and call for peace and that involves removing Hamas from Gaza,” he said. “That involves bringing back all the people that we can.”

Some protesters asked how Guterres would feel and act if his own children were among the hostages. And Avital Shimshowitz, 54, asked why organizations like the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders had not been able to visit the hostages, and accused the United Nations of “impotence.”

She said that she believed Hamas was also holding the entire population of Gaza hostage. “I feel for the people,” Shimshowitz said.

Some of the attendees said that the butterflies were a reference to decorations used at the Nova music festival, where the Hamas attackers killed hundreds of partygoers.

Yaala Ballin, 40, said, “They had a huge tree with many, many butterflies to represent freedom, beauty, love.”

She said that the demonstration was meant “to bring hope and to do something hopeful to show that we’re waiting for them and we believe that they’ll all be returned to us soon.”