A public relations strategist. At first it was not clear what his role was. But now that his business is coming to life, everything is clearer: Rohnen Tzur must convince the Israeli world that little Eitan is happy in the arms of his maternal grandfather and will be even more so among those of Aunt Gal, who at the same time announced in the press the start of the adoption procedure together with her husband.
What for Italian justice, and also for the International Convention of The Hague, is an aggravated kidnapping, for the man hired by the maternal grandfather of the child who survived the Mottarone massacre (on 23 May last 14 people lost their lives , among these the father, the mother, the little brother and the great-grandparents of the child), is instead the return to happiness. Proof? The photograph released by family members of Eitan's mother: the six-year-old boy in his grandfather's arms, both smiling. The grandfather doesn't look like a kidnapper, the grandson doesn't look like a hostage.
But the position of the strategist does not end here. It is no coincidence that the child's maternal grandfather, Smhuel Peleg, was interviewed: his words were aired in prime time, last Friday, in one of the most followed current affairs programs in Israel. In short, the story of the baby returned home got off to a great start to convince the Israeli public who initially saw the action of his maternal grandfather with severity. But now something has already changed: the maternal family wants the process on the custody of Eitan to take place in Israel where everyone can understand the language unlike what happened in Italy. This is what Aunt Gal expressed in the daily supporter of the right: it is important that Eitan remains Jewish. What's more: the maternal aunt stated that the paternal aunt looked down on her for ethnic reasons. And this is how the family clash in a few days, thanks to the super strategist, became ideological by dividing the Israelis on the right from those on the left. The left is for law enforcement along with the paternal aunt, the right is for Jewish nationalism with the maternal aunt.
All this infuriates the family of Eitan's father, especially his sister Aya who lives in Italy and to whom her nephew was entrusted by the court immediately after the terrible accident. For months Eitan had been living with her uncles and cousins in the province of Pavia and was slowly beginning to return to normal even if physically she has not yet recovered and because of the numerous fractures she walks with a walker, while from a psychological point of view the same aunt Aya told that every night he had to stand beside him and hold his hand to make him fall asleep and when he went to the bathroom during the day he had to leave his glasses as a pledge to the child: this was the only way he felt sure that his aunt would come back to him.
Now, however, Eitan constantly asks for his uncles and cousins and certainly cannot understand that in Israel his maternal grandfather is organizing a new life for him. And if the child, who has experienced the separation from the whole family and then was taken from his uncles, gets used to the new situation as the days go by, the return to Italy could be yet another terrible fracture.
We will see. The hearing before the Israeli judge, scheduled for 29 September, was brought forward to 23: the paternal uncles trust in compliance with the Hague International Convention on the abduction of minors to immediately bring Eitan back to the province of Pavia, where the child had arrived with his parents when he was not yet two months old. He attended kindergarten there and last January his father and mother had pre-enrolled in elementary school in a Catholic institute, that of the Canossian nuns.
After the tragedy of Mottarone, with the steel cable breaking and the cable car cabin falling into the void, the child was entrusted to his aunt Aya, the father's sister, a psychologist in prison, married with two daughters, who has been transplanted for some time. in Italy with the whole family. But the presence of maternal grandparents who moved to Italy in the aftermath of the drama has never been lacking, both in hotels, although different because they are separated, however, the grandfather hangs a conditional sentence for mistreating his ex-wife.
The grandparents were therefore next to Eitan and the meetings were authorized by the judge. There was only one prohibition: that of the child's expatriation, by virtue of which the maternal grandfather was ordered to return the Israeli passport of the grandson. Order rejected.
Eitan's maternal family members contested custody of the child and a tough legal battle was underway. The grandfather above all never hid that he wanted to bring his grandson back to Israel, he said that this was the decision already taken by his parents before he died, and then he did not like the Catholic school: in Israel he would have been educated according to the Jewish tradition. He also thought that in his parts the child would be better cared for.
But no one imagined the turning point of this terrible story: two Saturdays ago the maternal grandfather went to Aya to pick up Eitan, he should have brought him back at 18.30 but he showed up much later with a text message: "Eitan is back home" . That is, in Israel. The grandfather had taken the child and drove to Lugano where a private plane was waiting for him and with the child's passport never returned he left for Tel Aviv.
The Italian judiciary is also investigating any accomplices of the grandfather and grandmother, investigated together with the driver of the car who drove to Switzerland. In Israel, however, the grandfather, after five days of house arrest, returned in total freedom. The Italian ambassador went to his house, he saw Eitan: he is fine. His paternal uncles, on the other hand, say that the child has been brainwashed, he does not understand what is happening and is convinced that his grandfather took him to Israel for a vacation. And now Aya, escorted on arrival in Tel Aviv due to threats and insults on social media, while serving a period of quarantine, she also felt invited by her maternal grandfather to sit and talk.
The dispute is far from over. Everyone says they are moving for the sake of the child who at this point does not know what it may be.