In the News
Boston.com covered the “Boston Unites Against Terror: Hostage Tunnel Immersive Exhibit,” of which B’nai B’rith International is the primary sponsor. The exhibit is being held at Boston’s City Hall Plaza from August 18-20, 2024, and provides powerful insight into the horrors of Hamas captivity.
A large black shipping container spray-painted with the words, “Bring them home now!” has been set up on Boston’s City Hall Plaza. Inside, people walk through a three-minute simulation of a Hamas tunnel.
“You have the sounds and images and it creates an immersive experience for someone to come and get an appreciation for the deplorable, inhumane conditions of the hostages,” exhibit organizer Douglas Hauer told Boston.com.
Boston Unites Against Terror: Hostage Tunnel Immersive Exhibit, which opened Sunday and runs through Aug. 20, is free and open to the public.
About 110 hostages, who have been held captive for over 300 days by Hamas terrorists who entered Israel last Oct. 7, remain in Gaza after about 100 were freed during a short cease-fire in late November, according to the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, more than 40,000 Palestinians have died during Israel’s subsequent retaliatory invasion into Gaza, the territory’s Health Ministry told the Associated Press.
The concept for the immersive exhibit originated in Geneva when a group of Israelis tried to raise awareness about the Oct. 7 attack and the experiences of the hostages in Gaza to diplomats at the United Nations, Hauer said.
The exhibit was first shown in the United States at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., before coming to Boston.
Hauer said the choice to station the exhibit at City Hall Plaza was “really deliberate.”
“We want there to be visibility of the ongoing tragedy of civilians being held hostage in Gaza, and we want that at the epicenter of civic life in Boston,” said Hauer, a Boston lawyer and incoming rabbinical student.
Hauer said he is worried about potential protests at the event.
“There are concerns about vandalism and personal security of the people who come and participate in the exhibit,” he said.
Effie Yahalomi said her brother, Ohad, a park ranger, was shot in his leg and hand in his home before he was taken hostage. Yahalomi’s nephew Eitan was also held captive for 52 days and has been released, she said.
“My brother was taken with his boxers from his own house,” she said. “People came into his home, shot him, took his family, took him. He’s a civilian. This is not right.”
Yahalomi said she hopes the exhibit allows people to feel for a “quick moment” what the “hostages are feeling in those tunnels.” Yahalomi says she is doing everything in her power to bring Ohad back home.
“I want to ask him to hold on, to hold strong,” she said.
Chief Executive Officer of B’nai B’rith International Daniel Mariaschin said his cousin Sagui Dekel Chen went out early to do work on the morning of Oct. 7 when he saw terrorists approaching.
“He apparently took his own weapon to fire against the terrorists, and ultimately he was overcome,” Mariaschin told Boston.com.
Chen’s third daughter was born while he remains in captivity.
Charles Miller attended the event and said he was left with a “sickening feeling” after going inside the tunnel.
“You end up with a dead feeling in your heart when you walk through these exhibits,” he told Boston.com.
Irit Yakhnes, Deputy Consul General of Israel to New England, called the tunnel a “very impactful exhibit” after walking through it Monday morning.
“The suffocation, the noises, the feeling that you are out of breath, and we’ve been there only for three minutes,” Yakhnes told Boston.com. “We hope everyone will come and understand that this cause is for bringing those people home, and nothing else.”