Mia Schem’s Captivity Was Anything but Kindness

Mia Schem is one of the young people who was captured by Hamas and made a hostage on 10/7. She was released 55 days later and pro-Hamas accounts were eager to share a video created by her captors as she was being released.

🚨🇮🇱 Mia Shem, who was held hostage by Hamas, said this about her experience:

“People were very good. Very kind to me. Food good and the kindness and everything good.” pic.twitter.com/3U9bQgmqf2

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) December 1, 2023

There are many more examples like this.

BREAKING: ISRAELI HOSTAGE MIA SHEM SPEAKS ABOUT HAMAS TREATMENT

“People were very good. Very kind, to me. Food good and the kindness and everything good.”

Remember Mia’s right arm was broken and she was treated whilst she was with Hamas. pic.twitter.com/0iXE18Dope

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) November 30, 2023

It doesn’t take much brainpower to figure out that people who are in captivity might say things their captors want to hear, especially when they are moments away from being released. But the 17,000 people who liked Jackson Hinkle’s post didn’t figure it out. That or, more likely, they are like Hinkle himself and just don’t care about the truth.

Ed pointed out last week that Schem had given an interview which hadn’t been broadcast yet. It promised to be a more honest and revealing account of her experience in Gaza. Today I watched the full interview and it’s definitely worth a look.

Schem and her girlfriend tried to escape the music festival on 10/7 but drove straight toward a group of Hamas terrorists who shot the tires out from under her car. Then a group got out near her and shot her in the arm. She says her arm was “detached.” It sounds from the description like the bone was broken and her arm just flopped. She picked it up and tried to hide in the car as Hamas continued killing anyone who seemed to be alive. Finally her car was on fire and she had a choice between burning alive and handing herself over to Hamas. She decided to live.

And immediately she was sexually assaulted, despite the fact she was covered in blood. They put her in a van and took her back to Gaza. She spent most of her captivity there with her captor and his family in a little house. For three days she had no painkillers and no medical attention. Then they took her to a hospital and operated on her arm. She was filmed for a Hamas propaganda video in which a doctor wrapped her arm but that was the last time she received any medical help. No meds or painkillers. She was barely given any food.

She says her entire time in captivity it was clear to her that her captor wanted to rape her but he couldn’t do that because his wife and family were in the next room. The wife was clearly unhappy about her being there as well and showed her unhappiness by taunting her with food or talking to her husband about how her hair was fake. Her captor later confessed to her that he was unhappily married and didn’t love his wife.

Even the children seemed to get in on the taunting. At one point her captor’s son brought candy for his father and then showed her what was in the bag and walked away. She described it as “pure evil.” Then she added, “There are no innocent civilians there…From the moment those children are born, they’re brainwashed that Israel is Palestine and that they must hate Jews.”

She was once left alone with four Hamas members. She offered to cook for them. And it seems to have worked. They praised her cooking skills. “I got them to look at me differently,” she said.

The situation got worse from there. She wound up underground in the tunnels with other hostages being held in a tiny room. On one had she said it was a relief to be back among Israelis but on the other hand, she was losing hope she’d ever be free and some of the other hostages had clearly already given up.

And then she was told she was being released. Only they’d said that many times before as a way to break her spirit when it inevitably didn’t happen. But this time it did. At the last moment they stuck a camera in her face and told her to talk about how well she’d been treated. “What could I do? Start cursing them?” she said. She did what her captors wanted so she could go home. And that’s the propaganda video that Jackson Hinkle and others circulated to prove what nice guys Hamas fighters are.

Even after being released Mia is facing a lot of challenges. She’s still trying to recover use of her hand and arm but has a long way to go. And she also had some kind of epileptic seizure which doctors apparently put down to weeks of sleep deprivation, malnourishment and stress. Here’s the full interview. She really does come across as pretty remarkable for a 21-year-old.

🚨 Important – Mia Shem’s full interview to @channel13il.

Worth every minute of your day, listen to her story. pic.twitter.com/6dEjXFCgbf

— Yaari Cohen (@YaariCohen) January 1, 2024