NIF CEO: “Today we celebrate, tomorrow we organize.”

Responding the news that all remaining living hostages have come home to their families and that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now no longer living in fear and are returning to their communities, NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch released the following statement: 

It is an immense relief to see hostages and their loved ones finally being reunited. Einav Zangauker, who stood every day demanding the release of her son, who was nicknamed “Mother Lioness” for her unyielding efforts, and who received NIF’s Truth to Power prize last year can finally hold and touch and see her son, Matan. He, and so many others, are finally home.

We know the road ahead will not be an easy one. Too many hostages will never have the chance to hug their families. Too many Gazans have been killed, wounded, or displaced, and Gaza will need to be rebuilt. Israelis and Palestinians will need to heal. Today we celebrate, tomorrow we organize.

Israeli civil society organizations—Arab and Jews alike, seeking a better, shared future—are charting a different path. They know that now is the time to begin the enormous work of repairing what’s been shattered. They understand that all Israelis share the responsibility for building a tomorrow that is better than today, for everyone—one where political solutions establish the foundation for a life of safety, dignity, and equality for all. This is who NIF, and so many Israelis, stand behind. It is who we are. And our work, truly, has never been more important.