Nvidia Israel employees mark 100 days in captivity and call for the return of abductees from captivity in Gaza./Nvidia Israel.
Yesterday, the State of Israel marked 100 days of war. 100 days in which 136 Israeli abductees are still held captive by Hamas. To mark the dramatic event, leading companies in the economy announced a 100-minute strike in solidarity with the captives, held yesterday between 11:00 and 12:30, during which special activities were held in the striking companies, in order to raise awareness and support for the abductees.
Anyone who still remembers the days before October 7 has certainly not forgotten the many demonstrations held every week to protest the legal coup in many locations throughout the country, the main one being Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv. Thousands of workers from Tel Aviv's high-tech industry visited the site at every opportunity for many months to protest the legal reform that would erase decades of hard work in this industry in one fell swoop and bring Israeli high-tech to the ground. Now that reform is off the agenda, the war is taking its place and the reasons to take to the streets are piling up again.
However, if there is anything that the war has taught us, the hard way, it should be noted, it is that polarity and division have an unbearable price, and now, the new protest movement is going for a broad common denominator on which at least most of the people can agree: the abductees must be returned home, and better yet.
Meanwhile, many companies in the economy, some of which even suffered personal losses, joined the struggle yesterday and issued a clear and sharp call to return the abductees to their homes, in parallel with the widespread protest activity that took place in the abductees' square in central Tel Aviv. This is a turnaround from the activity carried out until now, which focused mainly on providing practical, economic or moral support to soldiers and families who were evacuated from their homes, and today focuses on raising awareness and exerting moderate public pressure on the government officials in charge of dealing with the issue.
When personal and business meet
One would think that the motivation to join the struggle for the abductees was purely branding, but with so many in Israeli society found themselves directly affected by a Hamas attack, there is no shortage of examples of companies that lost employees or relatives of workers, whether in the Black Saturday offensive or during the ongoing fighting in Gaza and on the northern border.
Nvidia held a special show of support together with the family of Avinatan Or, the spouse of the abductee Noa Argmani, an Nvidia Israel employee who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 from the party in Re'im, along with 135 other abductees who are still in captivity. More than 100 of the company's employees in Israel joined Avinatan's family today, each holding a sign out of 100 different signs produced with 100 dates of days past, to create a display of support for the families of abductees and Avinatan's family.
Gideon Rosenberg, VP of Human Resources at Nvidia Israel: "I am proud to stand here today alongside the brave family of our friend Avinatan Or on this difficult evening marking 100 days since his abduction, and together with hundreds of company employees who have joined the Or family every evening in recent months, and even more so today. Together, we pray and hope for the imminent return of Avinatan and all the abductees held captive by Hamas."
Ditza Or, Avinatan's mother: "Avinatan has been far from us in Hamas captivity in Gaza for 100 days, and I pray and hope that he will return to us soon with all the abductees and abductees, and we will be able to celebrate his return together. Until then, we will continue to come here to the Kirya every day, accompanied by friends of Avinatan, and we will continue to call for his return."
Ditza Or, mother of abducted Avinatan Or, at the protest rally on the centenary of the war./Nvidia Israel
At the international mobile gaming company Playtika, hundreds of employees gathered in the plaza outside the offices, heard the story of Omer Shem Tov in the presence of his mother Shelly Shem Tov, who came to the company's headquarters in Herzliya, shared their feelings on a huge wall display in the form of the past 100 days, and expressed solidarity and support for the return of the abductees and their families.
Robert Antokol, founder and CEO of Playtica, opened the 100 minutes by telling employees: "We abandoned them and we need to bring them back. We must not give up on them. We must not forget, we must not move on to the agenda. We must not let it pass us by as if it were not ours. It's ours. It could happen to any of us. We are in the country's greatest testing hour." The CEO then invited Shelly Shem Tov, the mother of Omar who was kidnapped in Gaza, to the stage to tell her story to the employees. There wasn't a single dry eye left in the audience.
Shelly Shem Tov, mother of kidnapped Omer Shem Tov, at a rally marking 100 days in captivity./Playtika
Teva has also joined the initiative to mark "100 Days in Captivity", led by representatives of the families of the abductees, and enjoys broad support from many companies in the economy. At 11:00 A.M., Teva employees paused for a moment from their daily routine and listened to the story of the struggle of the company's employee from Teva's headquarters in Tel Aviv, Yair Mozes, to return his parents, other family members and all the abductees, from Hamas captivity, back to Israel.
While his mother Margalit Mozes, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and other relatives (Doron Katz-Asher and her daughters Raz and Aviv) were returned to Israel during the first few stages, his father, Gadi, is still in the hands of Hamas, which recently published, as part of the psychological warfare, a chilling sign of life from him.
In addition, Teva is currently establishing the "Treating the Soul" fund to promote the treatment of Israeli trauma, with the understanding that after October 7, tens of thousands of Israelis joined the circle of coping with trauma, and now require treatment and healing, when in fact there are not enough therapists in Israel who are qualified to do so, making the issue of mental health treatment a national challenge of the highest order. This fund aims to train hundreds of additional professional therapists and strengthen resilience centers in the south – together with the Israel Trauma Coalition – and to identify and integrate technological innovation into treatments.
The protest of all of us
And of course, when it comes to such a just protest, even companies that have no personal connection to the war join the struggle to echo the stories of the abductees, abductees and their families. ADAMA also joined the effort when it held a conversation with Lishi Lavi Miran, wife of Omri Miran, who has been held captive by Hamas since October 46. Omri Miran, <>, from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, is a father, husband, son and brother. In addition, the company's sites in Israel, in Ashdod, Neot Hovav, Be'er Sheva and Airport City, were painted yellow in solidarity with the struggle.
Modi Banya, VP of People at Adama, sent a letter to all of the company's employees in Israel, in which he wrote: "The story of the abductees is not only theirs – it is the story of all of us, of all of Israeli society. We, too, will stop the activity in order to join the important call. I would like to encourage all our people in Israel to join the initiative and the call."
Cellcom Group Marks 100 Days of War./PR
Also among the companies that participated in the protests were the Cellcom Group, which stopped broadcasting on its home channels for 100 seconds; Shufersal Group, whose employees wore a special sticker in solidarity with the abductees and even distributed special bracelets to visitors to the branches, with a design matching the bracelets distributed to Nova Festival participants; Strauss Group, which made the products of the Struggle Headquarters of the Families of Abductees and Missing Persons available for purchase on the Strauss+ app; Aviv Real Estate Group, which launched hundreds of yellow balloons and even decorated its buildings with yellow flags; As well as Vysotsky, Factory 54, NARES, Beyond Skin, Davidson Institute, Europa Real Estate and many more.
The tower at Rothschild 22 was draped in yellow in solidarity with the struggle to return the hostages./PR
Strauss+ support the struggle for the abductees./PR
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