Students hear from survivors of Hamas attacks and Israeli activist Noa Tishby at Liberty University Convocation

Liberty University welcomed Israeli activist Noa Tishby to the Vines Center stage on Wednesday to talk about the remaining fight for Israel now that a ceasefire is in place and to remind students of the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, when terrorist organization Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people and seized more than 200 hostages in one of the greatest acts of violence toward Israel in modern history. Tishby interviewed two women who experienced the horrors firsthand: Moran Stela Yanai and Noam Ben David.

The Convocation was special because two years ago, in Convocation, Liberty students had prayed for the release of Israeli hostages, and Yanai was one of the hostages whose faces was shown on a big screen. On Wednesday, the students were able to see an answer to prayer by hearing from Yanai herself.

Tishby is a two-time New York Times best-selling author and Israel’s former special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization. She has been a pro-Israel activist and leader for over a decade and is the founder and CEO of Eighteen, a nonprofit institute combatting antisemitism and inspiring Jewish pride.

“As I speak to you today, the war in Gaza is finally over,” Tishby said. “Our living hostages are back home, and we are awaiting the return of every single one that’s left behind. We have a fragile ceasefire in place and renewed hope for peace in the Middle East. This was not a war that Israel wanted or started, but I want to be very clear: the hatred we have seen around America and the world was never about the war — it was about Israel.”

She said the pro-Palestinian advocates across the nation never wanted a ceasefire; they just wanted an end to Israel.

“These so called pro-Palestinian movements, they do nothing to actually improve the lives of Palestinians,” Tishby said. “They just make American colleges dangerous environments for Jewish students, and they inject anti-Western and anti-democratic poison into our society. Israel’s right to exist is questioned every minute of every single day,” she added. “They don’t just deny the legitimacy of the Jewish state, they deny the very connection of the Jewish people to land, the connection of the Jews to Israel.”

Tishby emphasized how Jewish people are indigenous to the land of Israel, and she said denying their connection to Israel is absurd.

“We need to stand up tall and proud. We have to challenge the lies, and we have to speak the truth,” she said. “We all need a better future, but for a better future to be possible, it has to be built on truth, and the truth is this: you can debate Israel’s creation all you want, (but) it wouldn’t make a difference. Israel is here to stay. The Jews have come from Israel, the Jews went back to Israel, and the Jews are not going anywhere and will remain in Israel forever.”

Tishby then introduced Noam Ben David, who was shot during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and witnessed the murder of her boyfriend, and Moran Stela Yanai, who escaped Hamas terrorists twice before being taken hostage for 54 days. She asked them to explain what happened on that day, when both women were at the Nova Music Festival, a central target of the Hamas attacks.

Ben David said she was at the festival as a painter with her boyfriend. While they were dancing by the main stage, they started seeing rockets in the sky, more than what was usual. The rockets were followed by gunshots and screams, and Ben David and her boyfriend hid inside a trash container, along with 16 other people.

Hamas terrorists raided the trash container and shot those in hiding, killing Ben David’s boyfriend, injuring her hip and leg, and only leaving four people from the trash container – including herself – alive. She and the other survivors remained hidden for hours, buried under dead bodies, and she had to use a sweater from one of the bodies to make a tourniquet for her injuries.

Yanai said it was her first time at a festival like this, and it was a dream come true for her to be there as a jewelry designer. She said the entire night leading up to the attacks she felt worried but didn’t understand why, until she also saw the rockets in the sky and everyone running.

Yanai discussed the times she escaped from Hamas that day by using an Arabic necklace she received as a gift to manipulate the terrorists into thinking she was an Arab so that they would release her. She was able to escape twice, until 13 terrorists grabbed her and beat her before taking her captive.

Tishby asked the women about the spiritual and physical effects of enduring such traumatic events. Yanai said that, physically, she broke both of her legs in several places, she had scars, lost half her hearing, lost substantial weight, and more. But they didn’t break her faith.

“They took my physical (health), my freedom, they took even my name,” she added. “But they cannot not take my faith, they cannot take my mind, which is protecting me 24/7. My faith held me. I was speaking to my God 24/7. I felt Him sitting next to me, being my best friend, being my mother, being my protector. They can try to break me mentally, and they can try to break me physically, but I smiled at the end of the day. My God was with me 24/7.”

Ben David said she has found much comfort in knowing that there are people, like the Liberty students she was talking to, who care about what happened to them.

“There’s something about that faith in you. It doesn’t matter what you believe in, what you love, who you are, what your skin color is,” she said. “What helps me is to see all of you right here, listening, caring about what happened in Israel and in our world. And that gives me that spark of hope that I need.”

Yanai said she knows she is a walking miracle, as God healed both her legs. She said that fact, and the memory of a friend she made in captivity who was murdered before she was released, keeps her going.

“(The fight) is not over. But I know that (God) gives me the power, and I see myself as a vessel,” she said. “It is my life mission for me to live (my friend’s) life as well.”

Ben David emphasized that even though the war is over, there is still much to be done. She said that though she received her boyfriend’s body to honor him and have closure, many bodies have not been returned.

“It’s not over yet, and we still need to fight to get them back,” she said. “Because they deserve to have a place that will honor their bodies.”