Resolution of the General Assembly of PEN Berlin on 8 December 2024
On the fate of journalist Oded Lifshitz
PEN Berlin calls upon the kidnappers in Gaza to send a sign of life from Oded Lifshitz to his family and the public in Israel and the world, to provide him with the necessary medical care, and to release him immediately.
Oded Lifshitz was attacked by terrorists on October 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, which he co-founded in 1955. He was injured by at least a gunshot to the hand and was unconscious when he was abducted to Gaza. His wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, was also taken to Gaza separately and was released on October 23. Oded Lifshitz was last seen alive by other hostages in November 2023, although in alarming health condition. Nothing has been known about him since then.
Oded Lifshitz is 84 years old and, together with his wife, devoted his life actively to the peaceful co-existence of Israelis and Palestinians. He was a journalist for the labor newspaper Al-HaMishmar. After the Six-Day War in 1967, he opposed the occupation of territories outside the 1949 armistice lines. Very often, Oded Lifshitz picked up Palestinians at the Ga-za border to drive them to Israeli hospitals, including just two weeks before his abduction on October 7, 2023.
PEN Berlin calls upon the kidnappers, Hamas and the Gaza Health Authority, and the government of Israel to urgently do everything necessary to ensure Oded Lifshitz can return to his wife and family in Israel.
More about Oded Lifshitz’s journalistic, political, and humanitarian work
Speech by his daughter Sharone Lifshitz
Interview with his grandson Daniel
Podcast with Sharone and Yocheved Lifshitz