‘Nightmare’: Says daughter of Judi Weinstein Haggai, last Canadian hostage held in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023

Iris Weinstein Haggai is pleading with the federal government to help bring her mother’s body home, the last Canadian hostage held by Hamas. Judi was killed on October 7, 2023, along with Iris’ father, Gadi Haddai, when Hamas attacked Nir Oz, in southern Israel.

Iris was in Montreal on Sunday calling for Ottawa to do more.

“My mom was in Toronto and she wanted to travel to Greece,” said Haggai. “Her friend told her, ‘you know, I’m going to Israel to this kibbutz, maybe you should come with me,’ it sounds like something really cool and she ended up falling in love with the kibbutz.”

Judi grew up in Toronto and Gadi is an American-Israeli.

“My dad was a jazz musician. He started playing flute when he was three years old. He just taught himself, and he was just like her, just this fighter for justice. They just fell in love. They were both just hippies in spirit,” said Haggai.

Her parents began each day with meditation, coffee and a walk. It was on one of these early mornings that her parents were attacked.

The nightmare begins

“There was a conversation that I heard, a call that my mom had with the medical emergency services that I found three weeks after. She says in the call, that two terrorists shot both of them on their morning walk and that my dad was probably dead,” said Haggai.

117 people were taken from the kibbutz, equivalent to one fourth of the population there, where Iris grew up. It would take 83 days before she got any news about her parents.

She calls it ‘psychological warfare,’ “this is not just a physical war [or] information warfare, but it’s also a psychological war that every day we families go through and the hostages… it’s just a nightmare.”

“I would wait for a list that Hamas would release every day, but her name wasn’t on the list,” said Haggai. “It was the most horrific, horrific time, really.”

Haggai says her and her family’s life has been on pause since then. She says her eight-year-old daughter just wants to understand what happened to her grandparents.

“My daughter needs to kind of understand, okay, they’re killed, but how come I can’t go to their grave? Still, a year later. So, it’s very tough for her, you know. The questions she asks me, no child should have to ask. No parents should have to answer. It’s just horrific, horrific reality,“ she said.

Those ‘who don’t have a voice’

Iris wants Judi Weinstein Haggai to be a household name.

“We stand for people who don’t have a voice and Canada should do everything to really remember the values that we stand for. There’s a reason we are known for human rights, for standing up for justice, and we should do everything we can to make sure that this stand alone humanitarian crisis is being solved.”

She met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a second time recently. Although he and many other politicians acknowledged her mother, she still doesn’t think it’s enough.

“We need action… my mom represents everything that Trudeau believes in and he should do everything he can to bring her back.”

Haggai has also launched multiple lawsuits.

“In the United States, there are indictments against the perpetrators of the victims of October 7th,” she said. “In Canada, there’s not even an open investigation, so it’s mostly about holding the ones accountable, making sure they don’t get the funding’s from organizations that are operating here in Canada.”

She says that her parent’s community supported ‘a two-state solution,’ they “believed in peace with the other side [and] chose to live a mile from Gaza for a reason.”

Haggai tries to remember the good times with her mother.

“She was a poet. She wrote a haiku every morning. and she was all about mindfulness. Her and my dad were just a symbol for unity and they’re very missed.”