Lanterns adorn night sky in Brighton to express solidarity with the hostages

One hundred and one lanterns, each representing a hostage still held in Gaza by Hamas, were held aloft in the night sky on the southern England coast in a poignant display of solidarity by Brighton’s Jewish community and its supporters.

Over one hundred members of Brighton & Hove’s Jewish and Israeli communities, as well as non-Jewish friends took part in the display on Monday night on Hove Lawns, using the lanterns to form the shapes of a candle and a ribbon, the symbol for the plight of the hostages.

Brighton resident Adam Ma’anit, whose cousin Tsachi Idan was kidnapped from his home on October 7, told participants that seeing hostage Edan Alexander appear in a video released by Hamas a couple of days prior was a reminder that efforts to get them free and out of Gaza must be “redoubled”.

“This is not a political issue; it is a humanitarian issue. The plight of the hostages should rise above the murk of war,” he said.

The evening also marked the launch of a national campaign aimed at getting people to wear a yellow ribbon, tie ribbons onto things and write to their representatives about the hostages.

Heidi Bachram of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign said at the event: “Emily Damari’s mum Mandy is in the UK advocating for her daughter. She said Emily may never heal after what she’s endured after a year in hell. She must be given the chance to because the alternative is unthinkable. We must never accept this as normal.”

The event, during which speeches were made and the Hatikvah was sung, was organised by the Yellow Ribbon Campaign in partnership with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Sussex Jewish Representative Council and the Brighton & Hove Jewish Community.

Of the 101 people still being held in the tunnels of Gaza by Hamas, 423 days after they were abducted, at least nine are reported to have connections to the UK through British relatives, including British citizen and hostage Emily Damari, who was taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.

Hostages with British connections:

Emily Damari – British family

Tsachi Idan - British cousin

Eli and Yossi Sharabi - Brothers with British in-laws (Eli had a British wife, Lianne and two daughters, Noiya and Yahel who were murdered)

Oded Lifshitz - daughter resident in the UK

Ilan Weiss - British family member

Shay Levinson - British great-aunt

Keith Seigel - British family

Avinatan Or - British family