A self-described “freedom fighter” from the Bronx who was previously held captive and enslaved in Sudan is calling on Hamas with one simple, heartfelt plea this Passover: let my people go.
Simon Deng may not be Jewish, but he knows what it’s like to be held captive: he was kidnapped, tortured and kept in slavery for nearly three years in his native Sudan — beginning at age 9.
Deng has since become a vocal supporter of Israel who has attended every Sunday rally in Central Park advocating for the release of the hostages, often speaking about his own experiences during his home country’s first bloody civil war.
This Passover, the humanitarian activist is pleading for the end of the bondage for the 24 living hostages whose pain stemming from the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre he knows all too well.
“We are in it together,” said Deng — a native of what is now South Sudan — who survived a bloody slave raid on his Christian village, as scores of his neighbors, young and old, were slaughtered by machine gun fire or burned alive in their huts.
The activist noted the horrifying parallels between Israel’s calamity and the terrorist assault he experienced at the hands of armed Muslim terrorists, leading to his kidnapping and enslavement to an Arab family in northern Sudan. He calls himself a “victim of radical Islam,” he said.
Deng recalled being beaten and tortured, living “not as a human being” but instead a “slave.”
Once he settled in the US in 1989 under political asylum, Deng became an outspoken activist for the plight of black slaves in Sudan, often traveling the country and meeting with political figures, including then-president George W. Bush.
During Deng’s fight for human rights, he became a friend of Israel, and turned his attention – and activism – toward the plight of the hostages at the hands of Hamas.
Before the start of Passover, considered the festival of freedom that celebrates the themes of liberation and redemption, Deng stressed the urgency of releasing the innocent hostages.
“It’s a fight against the same enemy, the same dangerous ideology,” said Deng, who’s often draped in the Israeli flag and wearing both his yellow pin symbolizing the freedom of the hostages and a Jewish star necklace.
“I witnessed exactly like what happened to Israel on Oct. 7,” Deng told The Post hours before the start of Passover, comparing the massacre he experienced as a boy when scores were killed at the hands of “Arab Sudan’s genocidal government” and the Hamas attack on southern Israel.
“I went through what you went through.”
This Passover, he said he will be munching matzah in solidarity with his Jewish brothers and sisters, and thinking about the themes of the holiday: freedom and redemption from bondage.
“I will be thinking about those being held against their will to be free,” said Deng, who refers to himself as a former child slave, before his escape with help from a fellow villager.
“Because I know exactly what that means.”
Deng, a father with one child in the US, thinks of the fortitude of Moses, and how he chose to be with his people. The quintessential Passover story evokes his own memories, as Deng was forced to convert to Islam during his forced servitude, but had the resolve to retain his true Christian “identity” in spirit.
“I feel very connected to the story of Passover,” he said. “Since Oct. 7, I have a purpose: when I was being held as a captive, nobody was there for me. Today, I’m free and I’m using my freedom to help those who are not free.”
The “big-time Zionist” added that he’s gotten heat for showing solidarity from others in the black community, but writes it off. “It’s ignorance — they should support the Jews for a simple reason: our common struggles,” he said.
Deng noted the shared bond between blacks and Jews during the civil rights era. “The struggle of [Martin Luther King Jr.’s] freedoms, who was there with them? The Jews.”
Growing up, Deng said the southern Sudanese were “ridiculed” and faced aggression for supporting Israel. “We were seen as ‘Jewish sympathizers,’” he said.
The African native credited the Jewish state in the struggle against oppressors in the north of Sudan. “The only country who come help us was the state of Israel.”
Still, the misplaced outrage won’t slow him down from advocating for the hostages both in NYC at rallies and leading solidarity marches in Israel, where he’s visited three times since the Oct. 7 attacks.
His “Walk for Humanity” march and rally is planned to convene in Washington, DC, on Oct. 5.
“How can we call ourselves humanitarians while turning away from the cries of the enslaved and slaughtered in African countries like Sudan and Nigeria, or the bloodshed in Israel?” he said.
Despite the seeming bleakness, he eyes a bright future. “I’m optimistic tomorrow will be better than today,” said Deng. “We have to stand shoulder to shoulder to defeat evil and we will defeat Hamas and Iran.
“If you don’t stand up to it, evil wins.”
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