Israel hosts concert urging the release of hostages in Gaza

The Israeli Embassy in Seoul hosted a “Concert for the Missing” at Seoul National University, where seats were adorned with pictures of people who remain missing since the militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

A pianist rehearses at Seoul National University's concert hall in Seoul during a recital on Wednesday in front of seats filled with pictures of the 240 people believed to have been taken hostage during an attack by the militant group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7. The Israel Embassy in Seoul hosted the “Concert of the Missing” to stand in solidarity with the hostages and their families and to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. [YONHAP]

The Israeli Embassy in Seoul hosted a “Concert for the Missing” at Seoul National University, where seats were adorned with pictures of people who remain missing since the militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

According to the embassy, the humanitarian event was held to express solidarity with the hostages and their families and to resoundingly call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

“On Oct. 7, 1,400 were killed,” Israeli Ambassador to Seoul Akiva Tor said. “But 240 are still alive, including 30 children, some very young.”

The ambassador said the current emotions coursing through Israel – a mixture of grief, anger, resignation and unwavering determination – defy adequate description.

“The insane number of dead, the killing of infants and children, the manner of the slaughter, the rape and barbarity, and now the captives – we know it, we react to it, but we can barely run the image through our minds,” Tor said. “This isn’t the Shoah – but the images of Oct. 7 are more immediate, and they scar the soul.”

The ambassador demanded the release of the captives and the defeat of Hamas.

“We have to accomplish them both,” Tor said. “The community must do everything to return captives to their home, children before all.”

Tor also stressed that self-defense is more than a right.

“It is a moral imperative,” Tor said. “It goes to the heart of what it means to be a human being. “The desire to live.”

The ambassador said although hostages are still kept “somewhere in tunnels beneath Gaza City,” the concert-goers could empathize with them by thinking of them.

“We will sit with them and look at their faces,” Tor said. “We will not forget them.”

Philip Goldberg, the U.S. Ambassador to Korea, who also attended the concert, urged the immediate release of the hostages. He also unequivocally labeled Hamas as a terror organization that has committed crimes against humanity.

“When you enter this auditorium, the place looks empty,” Goldberg said. “It’s not empty. There are 240 souls represented in the seats and in our hearts — mostly Israelis, innocent civilians, men and women, children, elderly, Holocaust victims.”

“All of these hostages are with us today, and we will remember them until they return home,” the ambassador said. “That is our common objective,” he added.

“We're in this together because we're in this as human beings, not just ambassadors, not just as government officials,” he said.

The U.S. ambassador to Seoul called the incursion on Oct. 7 “unspeakable crimes” and urged the release of the hostages.

“The 240 hostages are being held against their will, in the tunnels, other places, I imagine, in Gaza,” Goldberg said. “And we need to bring them home. And we're doing all we can to accomplish that.”

“Let's be clear about something,” the American ambassador said. “Hamas is a terror organization.”

“They don't deserve any rules of humanity,” he added. “They are exhibiting cruelty, unlike anything we've seen in recent times, except for possibly ISIS.”

Goldberg said that crimes against humanity committed by the militant group in Palestine have to be answered.

“And they are being answered in Israel's right to self-defense,” he said.

Other foreign dignitaries that attended the concerts included ambassadors from Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, Austria and Romania, as well as diplomats from Greece, Czechia, the EU, France, Paraguay, Peru and Ukraine.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]