The family of Avraham Mengisto says it will speak out publicly and demonstrate Monday for the first time in an effort to free their son after 11 months of captivity in Gaza.
They have held their silence for nearly a year in order to allow talks with Hamas for their son’s release to proceed.
But the Ethiopian immigrant is not free, and there has been no progress despite the Israeli government’s ongoing request for the family to ‘stay quiet’ while negotiations continue.
On Monday, the family says it will hold a demonstration outside the Hadarim Detention Center to finally raise the national awareness on what has happened to their son.
The choice of venue is strategic, and poignant.
The family has scheduled its demonstration during visitation hours, when the families of Palestinian Authority Arab security prisoners are allowed to visit their own imprisoned sons.
Accompanying the Mengisto family will be Kibbutz Movement leader Yoel Marshak, who headed the campaign to free former kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held hostage in Gaza for over five years.
The family is aware that this case is very different from that of Shalit.
For one thing, Mengisto was not kidnapped; he crossed directly into Gaza on his own two feet, of his own accord.
But more to the point, the 29-year-old Ashkelon man is known to be mentally ill. He did not serve in the IDF because of his condition, in fact.
Mengisto has still been held hostage in Gaza by Hamas anyway since crossing the border fence on September 8, 2014.
This is a strictly humanitarian case.
“We want to put pressure on Hamas using the families of the prisoners,” said a spokesperson for the family.