Rubin Report - Dave Rubin - Brother of Hamas Hostage Shares His Heartbreaking & Personal Story | Ilay David
Aired: 2024-03-12
Duration: 21:02


=== Listen Maybe (02:13) ===

[00:00:00]  Thanks for watching.
[00:00:12]  on Saturday, he said that they're shooting on them missiles and bombs, and they have to run away to the vehicles and escape.
[00:00:22]  And about 8 a.m., the connection with him lost completely.
[00:00:27]  Later, my daughter, she posted on Instagram his photo and asking if somebody saw her.
[00:00:34]  Some unknown number texted her and sent her a video and we saw him handcuffed on the floor of a dark room.
[00:00:45]  It was very painful.
[00:00:46]  Hamas is ISIS.
[00:00:48]  Look at the scared look.
[00:00:50]  One of many who went out to celebrate life at a party and became a tool in the hands of a despicable organization.
[00:00:55]  Leviathan, we love you.
[00:00:57]  Keep that in mind.
[00:00:58]  It's only a matter of time and stay strong.
[00:01:00]  Wish we were meeting under better circumstances.
[00:01:13]  I suppose you probably hear that a lot.
[00:01:15]  Yeah.
[00:01:16]  All the time.
[00:01:18]  Yeah.
[00:01:20]  I mean, just tell us your story.
[00:01:22]  We just want to listen for now, and maybe we'll ask you some things at the end.
[00:01:27]  So, my name is Eli David.
[00:01:30]  I'm 26 years old, and I'm here to talk about my brother, my younger brother, Eviatar, which is a gentle, very gentle young man Living his life, I think, to the fullest.
[00:01:54]  He loves music.
[00:01:55]  He plays the guitar.
[00:01:56]  He's very talented on the guitar.

=== Friday Night Shabbat Dinner (03:22) ===

[00:02:04]  He loves to celebrate.
[00:02:07]  He goes to parties with his friends all the time.
[00:02:10]  That's his thing in the family.
[00:02:18]  He's that person that... If you are his friend, you know that he's the one to go and talk to about your problems.
[00:02:30]  If you need any advice, he will always be there to listen.
[00:02:36]  And I meet his friends all the time.
[00:02:41]  Unfortunately, I didn't know his friends that good before.
[00:02:48]  But that's the story they keep telling, that right now their psychologist isn't around.
[00:02:57]  And I actually miss the most the times that we used to play together and sing together.
[00:03:06]  I play the piano, he plays the guitar, and every Friday night we sit together to play and sing.
[00:03:19]  And that's what I miss the most.
[00:03:29]  So, on October 6th, I got home to my parents' house.
[00:03:37]  It was Friday night and we had Shabbat dinner every week.
[00:03:45]  My brother was really in a hurry because he wanted to go early to the festival and built his tent and everything before the festival starts so he barely touched his food and I gave him a hug and a kiss and I said Shabbat Shalom like every week and he took my mom's car and picked up his friends and just went south and we woke up at 6 30 a.m.
[00:04:29]  on October 7th to the sirens actually We live not far from Tel Aviv, a little bit up north from
[00:04:39]  here, and the rockets got to us as well.
[00:04:46]  So we ran to the bomb shelter and my mom immediately...

=== Last Message Escaped (06:06) ===

[00:05:06]  ...told us to go away, but they didn't know at that time what was really going on.
[00:05:12]  Nobody did.
[00:05:15]  So, we didn't panic at first.
[00:05:22]  And only at 7.42 when he sent his last message, he sent something like, we're escaping, we're going to the cars to escape.
[00:05:33]  That was his last message.
[00:05:35]  And after that, we saw what's going on on the news.
[00:05:38]  We saw all the killing.
[00:05:41]  And we saw many people are hiding.
[00:05:45]  And at 9am, one of his best friends, one of his best friends, Ron, she called her mother, crying, screaming.
[00:06:01]  About shooting around her, explosions.
[00:06:09]  And we understood that something terrible is about to happen.
[00:06:14]  I actually, at that point, I had a stupid game with my younger sister.
[00:06:21]  I asked her, what does she prefer?
[00:06:27]  A dead brother or a hostage brother?
[00:06:31]  And I was prepared in my mind for the worst.
[00:06:35]  Like I was prepared in that point to really bury my younger brother.
[00:06:42]  Um, cause that's how my mind operates.
[00:06:49]  And it's 2 p.m.
[00:06:53]  We got screenshots.
[00:06:55]  Um, just someone sent my sister, A screenshot from a video which I would like to show you.
[00:07:03]  so you can see what I saw at that moment.
[00:07:07]  And she screamed that all of us should come and see what she saw.
[00:07:22]  And we all recognized my brother immediately.
[00:07:27]  And then we asked for the full video and that person sent us two links to different videos.
[00:07:35]  Both of them Hamas posted on Telegram.
[00:07:41]  At the first one, we could see my brother being held, dragged inside Gaza by a terrorist.
[00:07:50]  And his shirt was torn and he was tied up behind his back.
[00:07:57]  And on the second video we saw him.
[00:08:00]  The screenshot was taken from that video.
[00:08:03]  We saw him beside four other young men.
[00:08:09]  They were all tied up.
[00:08:11]  Some of them were beaten.
[00:08:14]  Some of them sitting.
[00:08:15]  Some of them lying on the floor.
[00:08:20]  The cameraman was making sure that we will see their faces and recognize them.
[00:08:29]  And one of them was my brother, looking straight into the camera with primal fear, really.
[00:08:38]  I think I never saw someone that terrified in my life.
[00:08:44]  And next to him was his best friend from kindergarten.
[00:08:49]  And I felt at that moment, I felt mostly angered.
[00:09:01]  Mostly anger I think I was furious.
[00:09:06]  I was cursing like five minutes straight.
[00:09:09]  I was angry about what happened to my younger brother.
[00:09:15]  I was angry about myself because I felt like I failed.
[00:09:20]  To protect my younger sibling.
[00:09:26]  And I felt helpless, like there's nothing I can do.
[00:09:30]  Like really, the floor was crumbling under my feet.
[00:09:42]  But I think a day after that, I actually saw on TV Two women talk about another hostage and they showed a video and it was the same video clip that I saw my brother in so they left the phone number on the screen and I immediately called her and it was that other young man's older sister and I was like, I was crying to her on the phone and she was crying to me on the phone
[00:10:21]  But at that moment I understand how big this event is.
[00:10:25]  I understood that it's huge and I'm not alone in that situation.
[00:10:36]  So after the first week, which was really terrible, I joined this place, the Families Forum.
[00:10:52]  And I really, I try to do the best to fight for the life of my brother and the other hostages.

=== Time Running Out (10:04) ===

[00:11:01]  We know right now, we currently, beside the videos, we have no sign of life.
[00:11:09]  And we actually have no idea about their well-being.
[00:11:13]  And we can only assume, and we heard also from the hostages that came back, All the terrible things that happen there.
[00:11:24]  The mental abuse, the physical abuse.
[00:11:28]  And I personally feel that the time is running out.
[00:11:32]  And every day that we're waiting, every day that passes, the danger to the lives increases.
[00:11:46]  And I also understand that we cannot do it alone.
[00:11:49]  and we need all the support we can get and we have to fight
[00:11:58]  We have to fight it.
[00:11:59]  We have to fight evil and bring them back home, all of them, as soon as possible.
[00:12:07]  And I thank you for coming here and listening and supporting us.
[00:12:14]  That's important.
[00:12:19]  And you can ask whatever you want.
[00:12:21]  Yeah, I mean, I'm speechless.
[00:12:22]  I don't know what to say.
[00:12:23]  It's a.
[00:12:23]  What do you what do you?
[00:12:37]  I don't know if this is the right question, but what do you want to happen right now?
[00:12:41]  Is there anything you think could be done differently right now?
[00:12:47]  Actually, I don't know.
[00:12:49]  I really don't know.
[00:12:49]  I'm not a politician.
[00:12:55]  I know nothing about strategy and war and negotiation with terror organizations.
[00:13:05]  So, I don't know.
[00:13:07]  I can only believe that my authorities and other authorities are doing the best they can.
[00:13:13]  But I feel like every minute that they're not here, it's failure.
[00:13:24]  All of us, we are failing right now.
[00:13:27]  as bringing them back home.
[00:13:30]  I don't know, really.
[00:13:37]  There's a better way.
[00:13:41]  How do you feel about just sort of what's happened in Israel since then?
[00:13:44]  Like what's going on here at the Square, what's going on literally in this room, and just the feeling in the country right now?
[00:13:51]  At first it felt like everybody, we connected again, all of us, all the parts of the Jewish state, Arabs and Jews and, you know, religious and non-religious.
[00:14:10]  And also us, all the hostages' family, we became, it's more than 100 families right now, and we became like a family.
[00:14:20]  Like a big community.
[00:14:22]  The saddest community ever.
[00:14:26]  And I think that's the magical things.
[00:14:33]  One of the magical things that happened here at the Hostages Families Forum.
[00:14:41]  That sense of togetherness and supporting each other I even slept a couple of weeks at the square.
[00:14:57]  We had like a family gathering there and something like 10 or 20 family members were sleeping there for several weeks.
[00:15:12]  And I keep speaking with many, many groups.
[00:15:14]  I think I spoke to more than 1,000 people in the square.
[00:15:20]  And schools and even soldiers, like everyone who was willing to come and listen.
[00:15:32]  I was there to speak with them.
[00:15:37]  And they give us also the sense of meaning that we're doing something meaningful.
[00:15:46]  We meet people like you.
[00:15:48]  which we hope you can actually have influence.
[00:15:53]  Yeah.
[00:16:01]  What do you want the world to know?
[00:16:02]  What would you want to tell everyone?
[00:16:09]  It's been so many days.
[00:16:12]  So many days.
[00:16:14]  And I was sure it will be Much, much, much shorter.
[00:16:20]  It will end in a week or two.
[00:16:24]  And here we are, five months after that, and my brother is still being held captive by the organization.
[00:16:33]  And he and other 133 are being held captive.
[00:16:47]  And it's impossible that we live in a world which people who just lived their lives or
[00:16:56]  went to celebrate at a peace festival were stolen from their lives.
[00:17:05]  Just people having fun or living their lives.
[00:17:08]  And right now they're going through hell for so many times.
[00:17:14]  And we just keep with our lives.
[00:17:19]  And the world didn't stop.
[00:17:24]  And that's crazy.
[00:17:28]  Because my life stopped.
[00:17:29]  My family's life stopped.
[00:17:31]  And so many others.
[00:17:34]  So... You don't have to answer this if it's too personal, but I wonder if it's changed you religiously or spiritually or however you would answer that question.
[00:17:50]  That's a good one.
[00:17:52]  I think I more appreciate now prayers.
[00:18:04]  I I don't practice religion, but I have many friends that do, and also family members.
[00:18:15]  And I truly believe that it has something to do with reality.
[00:18:25]  I mean, right now we need all the help we can get.
[00:18:31]  But me personally, I didn't become a better believer in God or something.
[00:18:43]  I do believe that it will end and it will have a good ending.
[00:18:51]  I can feel my brother breathing and alive and I know that he will come back to us
[00:18:57]  and I know that we will take care of him and that he will be okay.
[00:19:01]  Because if I would believe otherwise I just...
[00:19:14]  Couldn't wake up in the morning.
[00:19:16]  How do you keep your sense of humor?
[00:19:26]  Why are you still funny?
[00:19:28]  Um...
[00:19:30]  Maybe... maybe it's a defense mechanism.
[00:19:42]  I mean, there's so many defense mechanisms that I think I'm using right now.
[00:19:54]  But that one specifically, it helps me to live my life.
[00:20:02]  To go through all that.
[00:20:06]  I mean, it's a nightmare, so I have to do something to make it a little easier.
[00:20:14]  Like I try to eat and sleep and exercise, and it's all for my brother.
[00:20:23]  I know that he will come back and I need to be there for him eventually to support him.
[00:20:30]  So that's like, I only think about him.
[00:20:33]  Well, thank you for sharing that.
[00:20:42]  I mean, how many times have you told this story now?
[00:20:48]  Dozens of times.
[00:20:50]  Maybe even more, really.
[00:20:53]  And it's not easier.
[00:20:57]  Yeah, it doesn't get easier.
[00:21:00]  Well, thank you.
[00:21:01]  We really appreciate it.