Pregnant Canadian woman Hana Gan still trapped in Israel

Marianne Azizi writes: 

After three weeks of waiting for a decision on whether she will ever see her sons again, Hana Gan, 36, is becoming desperate for her freedom and for her right to have her baby in Canada.

As with other parents in Israel who lose their children with frightening regularity, Hana can visit her children only for two hours in a sterile Contact Centre.

Most Israeli people are fully aware of the interference of the state in their personal affairs. They struggle to make a living and find affordable housing, and most are at a loss as to who to vote for in the election due on 17 March.

Click here for a shocking recording of Hana’s attempt this week to gain understanding of why she cannot choose where to live in the world.

The agony of a pregnant adult mother who has been forcibly separated from her own children due to a difference in opinion between her and her own parents seems to have been lost in criticism that this story is politically motivated and aims at tarnishing Israel’s reputation.

Human rights workers, journalists and charitable Israelis are providing help and support for Hana, fully aware that this is happening on an almost daily basis to thousands of parents. Israelis and Palestinians alike have shown support for her.

If people in the West want to support Israel, then it is incumbent upon those supporters to know the amount of social injustice and poverty that exists there.

Hana tried to take her children home to Canada in February on Canadian passports, and has been told the reason her children were taken from her is because she tried to leave Israel. She is not permitted to be with her sons because “someone” made a complaint and the state intervened with no evidence other than an unproven comment.

This is a common occurrence, with sparring families being able to make claims against one another and it causes so much distress. Where is the mediation or enquiry?

What part of this is difficult to understand? If people in the West want to support Israel, then it is incumbent upon those supporters to know the amount of social injustice and poverty that exists there. If this is viewed as a platform and opportunity to bash Israel, then it is the wrong attitude. A living, breathing Canadian mother decided after 24 days of moving to Israel that she had made a mistake. Now she is paying dearly for deciding to leave and upsetting her own parents. This is not a reason for such an infringement of freedom of movement and, worse still, to remove her from her own children.

This audio recording shows Hana clearly not being able to understand such a violation of her rights, with little explanation given to her other than it was on the grounds of the word of another.

To politically argue for or against the state of Israel is one thing, but to ignore the plight of a pregnant woman, desperate to return to the only real home she has known is quite another. Hana, like thousands of parents every year, has had her life and her children stolen by the Israeli welfare state.

If an Israeli human rights activist can cry out for help from inside, we owe it to them to expose the reality of such social injustice.

Hana Gan should not have to settle in Israel and find a job to prove she is fit enough to have her children back and leave the country. It seems that the more she declares her intention to leave, the less likely the Israeli authorities will restore her right.

Is this democracy? Who will protect the children of Israel from such a democracy?


  • For more information on Hana Gan, visit the Trapped in Israel Facebook Page.
  • Also see video of 15 Israeli police officers swooping on Hana Gan and taking her children away, filmed by Israeli and Canadian filmmakers.
Print Friendly, PDF & Email