Why an Arab father hid his son’s identity from Hamas

Following Oct. 7, Ramzy made the agonizing decision to erase “Nassar” from Liam’s name in absentia and his own identity from media reports.

By Dinah Bucholz, Jewish Breaking News

Being an Arab and a Muslim on the day of Oct. 7, 2023—and indeed any day thereafter for the hostages—offered no protection from Hamas’s murderous rage.

Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews alike were massacred and taken hostage; Gazans view all Israeli Arabs as Israeli collaborators.

It was this fear that led the Arab Muslim father of captive Liam Or-Nassar to erase his name, Ramzy Nassar, from all media related to his son’s abduction from Kibbutz Re’im on that fateful day. From that point on, Liam Or-Nassar became Liam Or.

Ramzy is married to a Jewish Israeli woman, and he feared that if Hamas knew his son’s parentage, his life would be jeopardized.

Ramzy also decided not to campaign publicly for Liam, fearing that being the son of an Arab Muslim might mean his captors would see him as more valuable and not want to release him.

“If Hamas knew, it could hurt Liam,” the father said in his first interview on the subject.

“It’s not something that would have been well-received on the other side, that his Muslim father is married to a Jewish woman, even though there’s no such prohibition in Islam. The boy could have been considered a traitor, a son of a traitor. I acted entirely out of a cold and painful calculus.”

“We also didn’t want them to assign him a ‘higher value,’ to hold on to him longer, if it turned into some major media event here in Israel,” he added.

Nassar lived with his wife, Dana, and their children on the same kibbutz, with Liam living nearby. At first, they were able to communicate.

“We were texting, and he told me he could hear people outside, footsteps, shouting, and bursts of gunfire. I… urged him to stay in the safe room,” Ramzy said. “He wrote back, ‘Dad, I’m scared.’”

But then the messages ceased.

“I texted him several times to answer, but there was no reply,” Ramzy said, describing the frantic flurry of texts that went unanswered.

“I checked his phone location; it was still in his room. We were getting messages about terrorists in homes and about fires. The couple of friends with us in the safe room received horrifying updates from the Nova [rave], and on TV we saw the [Hamas] pickup trucks in Sderot. We didn’t understand, we couldn’t believe it, and we waited for the army in terrible helplessness that’s hard to describe—and we had no contact with Liam.”

But the family discovered the truth of what happened in the starkest possible way—with an image of their son, who had been pulled out of his home in nothing but his underwear, bound and held captive in a tunnel. He was 18 years old.

“Liam’s girlfriend called, crying, and told me that a classmate had sent her a picture of Liam,” Ramzy recounted.

“She was in shock and couldn’t send it to me. I called the boy and asked for the photo. I looked at it: Liam, in just his boxers, tied up in a tunnel. One part of my mind said, ‘That’s Liam, your son.’ Another part said, ‘It’s fake, impossible.’ But my heart said, “Ramzy, you know that’s your boy.” Guy, Liam’s brother, was next to me. He saw the picture and let out a chilling scream.”

Hours later, Ramzy made the agonizing decision to erase “Nassar” from Liam’s name in absentia and his own identity from media reports, as well as to refrain from publicly campaigning for his own son’s release.

“I was devastated that I had to stay silent because of my identity, my origins, in the very country I live in, out of fear that it could harm my son, whether in Gaza or here in Israel,” the father said of this painful decision.

“It made me ask what kind of reality I am even living in. Changing the family name was an extremely painful decision, but every decision we made was solely to protect Liam.”

He compared the joy of getting Liam back to the joy of a child’s birth.

“It’s hard to describe the feelings on the day of his release,” he said. “The closest thing I can compare it to is the birth of a child.”

“I was waiting for a photo, something tangible, to know the boy was okay,” he added. “I remember seeing a picture of him in the van, nodding to a soldier who was there, and then moving on. Nothing compared to that. When we finally met, I ran to him, he ran to me, and we hugged. The first thing Liam said to me was, ‘I’m okay, Dad, I’m okay.’ … That was the moment I felt like I could breathe again.”

Ramzy went on to describe Liam’s reaction to his name change.

“When Liam was freed, he was given an identity card at the hospital and was surprised to discover the name change,” Ramzy said. “I explained to him why we did that. He understood, but he asked to have it changed back. It was fixed that same day.”

Liam’s cousins, the children of his mother’s brother, Noam and Alma Or, were also kidnapped from their home on Kibbutz Be’eri. The parents were murdered, but the children were released along with Liam.

Despite the fact that Liam was released in the first hostage deal, Ramzy’s fear kept him silent—until now.

HamashostageOct 7th