Adi, Israel 1/01/2024
Interview (Jennie Milne) with Achi and Talma Rosen, grandparents of 23-year-old hostage Alon Ohel.
On the evening of January 1st, 2024, I found myself in the home of Achi and Talma Rosen; the grandparents of 23-year-old hostage Alon Ohel. We had travelled from Northeast Scotland, via Jerusalem to stay with an Israeli friend who lives in the same beautiful small Galilean village of Adi, and when she suggested I meet the family, I immediately agreed. A short fifteen minutes later I walked into their home with my husband and the friend, into welcomes and introductions, and initial small conversation, into a home where Alon’s friendly face greeted me as it shone out smiling, from his grandmother’s t- shirt, and devastatingly, from a large ‘Kidnapped’ poster with details of his abduction, placed on an empty chair. As soon as I entered the room, the unspoken depth of a myriad of emotions, of incomprehension, tragedy, loss, fear, hope, and expectation confronted me, enveloping me like a wave. It was as if I had passed through an invisible wall, leaving my world of comfort and safety, and walked directly into their pain.
Seated on their living room sofa, sandwiched between Talma on one side, and Alon’s empty chair on the other, Achi introduced himself and began to describe his beloved oldest grandchild, son of their older daughter Idit, and Kobi Ohel. My eyes transferred between his grandparents’ anxious faces and the image of Alon as I listened – his presence, and terrible forced absence was palpable. Alon’s parents had met and married in Adi, only moving out of the village when Alon was less than two years old.
Achi and Talma Rosen with an image of their grandson Alon Ohel. Alon is held hostage in Gaza.
I learned that curly haired Alon was their first grandchild, a very happy, sociable, and active boy with lots of friends. He had two younger siblings, a brother and sister. When he started learning the piano as a child at the age eight, his teacher saw immediately that he was very talented, he studied hard, leading to a major in music where he received an unheard-of score of one hundred for his graduation recital in one of the Conservatoriums in Haifa. His grandfather had escorted him on this occasion and Achi mentioned how scary the judges appeared to him, nevertheless, they recognized Alon’s talent and admired his work.
Talented Pianist Alon Ohel before he was captured. Copyright the Ohel/Rosen family.
Like many other young Israelis, Alon travelled before continuing his studies, initially working in a Hotel in the Negev, before going abroad for six or seven months. “wherever he went he always met some Israelis – and everybody was happy to be around him” his grandfather told me, before explaining – “How do we know? Because when it was known that he had been kidnapped, people we knew nothing about started to write to us through Facebook or other communication means about him; how pleasant it was to meet him, and to be with him”.
Alon Ohel
“wherever he went he always met some Israelis – and everybody was happy to be around him”
Alon returned and was getting ready to move to Tel Aviv with three friends from high school and to start working before they began University. “That was the beginning of September” Achi told me quietly, “we started getting ready. I also got him a piano, a piano that can go into a small apartment so he can continue to play……….. unfortunately on Friday night, October 6th, he called a few of his friends and they decided to go to the concert – the Nova Festival. “They left at 2:30 in the morning” Achi continued, “him and two couples in the car and another couple came from Tel Aviv. They got in the car and left here around 2:30am and got there around 5:30am. Very soon the bombarding started, Hamas moved in, and in the rest of we all know now….” His voice trailed off.
After a pause to compose and refocus his thoughts, Achi began to tell us the horrific details the family now know “What they were able to do is to go into the car, and they tried to run out of the area. Because of the bombardment at one intersection, they found this shelter; in many of the intersections that are shelters because you know, things like that (rocket attacks) can happen. They went into the small shelter - it could only hold about 10 or twelve people but there were twenty-seven packed in. After a short time, the Hamas arrived. The first thing they did was they started to throw grenades into the shelter, and Alon and another two guys stood at the front, they took the grenades and threw them back, but the eighth grenade that was thrown in killed the guy (Aner Shapira) who threw the most back. At the same time, from this grenade, a friend of Alon’s lost his arm, so they had to stop the bleeding with a tourniquet. (Hersch Goldberg-Polin’s forearm was blown off by the grenade)
‘Then the Hamas came and took Alon and Hersch, and a third guy, Elia Cohen, on a truck and that's the last that we know of him……….but we have some videos”. “Anyhow” he continued, “that’s the last we know of him since then, we didn't get any, no new information. He was taken. When some of the hostages from the Nova festival and the neighboring kibbutzim that were released, nobody gave any information that they saw them or knew about them. Nobody knows whether Hamas kidnapped them, Islamic Jihad kidnapped them or if it was just hoodlums from the street that came in and kidnapped them, we have no piece of information. Nothing.”
Poster for Alon in his grandparents community of Adi. Jennie Milne
“So now we just pray and wait” added Talma, Alon’s grandmother.
I asked how the family found the strength to continue in the face of such horror, and the unbearable uncertainty. Talma picked up the conversation “Since this has happened his mother Idit has decided that we must think positively all the time, because we cannot influence what happened to him at all. The only thing we can do is to do things that make life… to pray for him and do good things so that he may feel it, he may know it, it may give him energy…. We know that as a person he is very strong, he is very positive in his thinking, we believe that he knows we are doing the best for him – that will give him power and energy. So, all the time we are doing that - whether we are walking twice a week in Adi (the community walks for him), whether his family and friends in their neighborhood are doing meditations, walking, and running where they live. There is a piano for Alon in the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, decorated by his mother, it says ‘Alon, you are not Alone’. Many musicians have come to play it for him, around this piano there are a lot of people, singers, and groups that come over. Someone is playing the piano around the clock.”
‘Bring Them Home Now’ posters for Alon and all the hostages in the Rosen’s home
‘His mother is being interviewed every day, overseas, in Israel, and her message is just to believe, that we are positive, that we trust, we want good to happen, and we do good things that make us strong, so that when he comes back home, he will see us strong. We will keep the house strong.”
“That’s very important” Achi agreed “I would say that’s more important for us, for his family and for him. We really don’t know what’s going on but one thing that’s sure because of his personality if he’s around other hostages 100% he’s helping them out, encouraging them because that’s his nature.”
Before we left the Rosen’s, I asked if there was anything they would like to say to people in Scotland. The message was clear; For people to pray – for Alon and all the hostages, pray for them to be returned as soon as possible. And please support Israel in this situation, a hostage situation which includes both the very young and very old, never seen in the world before. Israel needs our support, and the belief that she is doing the best she can.
“There is a piano for Alon in the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, decorated by his mother, it says ‘Alon, you are not Alone’. Many musicians have come to play it for him, around this piano there are a lot of people, singers, and groups that come over. Someone is playing the piano around the clock.””
I left with a heavy heart, Alon’s face fixed in my mind. This is their reality, and that of many, many other families. This is Israel’s enormous pain. We left Israel a few days later, making our way through a quiet Ben Gurion Airport, where the faces of each hostage line the halls and corridors as a constant reminder not to forget them. This is unfinished. They are not where they should be. Alon’s handsome face framed by his unruly curls gazed up at me from the stark ‘Kidnapped’ poster as I got onto the escalator with my bags and has remained with me since. I have taken him and his family home to Scotland. They reside in my heart, and my constant prayer is that he and all the Hostages are freed to return to their homes, to their families, to their lives.
Please stand with us.
Alon with his family before he was kidnapped.
Jennie Milne, Inverallochy, Scotland 18/01/2024