Good afternoon. I would like to welcome, uh, Aviva Siegel and Keith Siegel in the White House. Uh, Aviva was hostage for 51 days, captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and Keith was captured for 434 days. After Aviva was freed, she called me, wanted to see me, and we set up a meeting in New York in January 2025. It was emotional meeting and, uh, it is, it is captured on camera and available to see in my new film, Melania.
Um, it was very emotional. Aviva present me with two of Keith's books and, uh, when I came home that evening, I gave it to my husband and informed him the situation and I know he was fighting for all of the hostages. And as we know now, all of the hostages are free and home with the families. Aviva was a warrior.
She's a warrior. She was fighting very hard for Keith. And I know he suffered a lot. I'm happy to see you healthy at home with your children, with your grandchildren, with your family. And, uh, I know you're giving back your time, your energy to other people, so thank you for that.
Thank you.
Would you like to say a few words?
Yes. I wanna start by saying thank you to the First Lady, Melania Trump and President Trump. I wanna thank you for being a caring, compassionate person, and for supporting and helping Aviva. During those difficult days, and you helped her enormously, um, in many ways. It's an honor and it's a privilege and I'm eternally grateful, and I am very grateful to have the opportunity to say that to you in person, sitting next to you.
I'm eternally grateful to you and President Trump for bringing me home and for bringing all of the hostages back to their families. Um, and I just wanna mention, uh, the extraordinary, uh, mobilization in the flight, in the fight for Aviva and my, and all of the hostages' freedom, and how it moved me deeply.
And it showed us the true meaning of holding onto hope, even in the most difficult moments. Now that I have regained my freedom, and I celebrated one year of freedom being released from captivity this Sunday, I have committed myself to partnering with Israeli and Israeli humanitarian aid organization to help restore hope for others.
Giving back is a crucial part of my recovery and rehabilitation process. Aviva and I just returned -- Aviva and I just came from, on Sunday, from one of the world's largest refugee camps in Kenya called Kakuma. In Kakuma, Israel is providing access to clean water, hygiene, sanitation, and education to thousands of refugees that otherwise would not have any of those.
The work of Israel has inspired me and given me a new sense of, of purpose. Um, what an a, a remarkable and amazing accomplishment, bringing all of the hostages back home. And we have a mission ahead of us to help others that are struggling. And this is our new mission in life. This is the road we are on. This is our journey.
And I also want to end by congratulating you on the release of your movie. So much looking forward to seeing it and so grateful for you deciding to have A- -- Aviva be a part of your movie. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful. Would you like to say a few words?
I just wanna say that I waited for the last hostage to come home, to thank you. Because when we met before he came home, you gave me so much hope and I could feel your heart with me. And I, I knew how important it was for you to go back home and talk to President Trump and share your feelings. So I want to thank you for that.
And I want to thank you for putting me in your special Melania phone because I was there talking to you, not for myself or, but for the whole world. Bringing the hostages home was the most important thing that I could think about in this world. And now it's all over the world, the bad things that Hamas did to my husband, but I'm lucky.
And thank you, Keith, for staying alive and being with me. And thank you, Melania, for helping. I really appreciate it. I wanna just tell you that I decided to write a book and it's dedicated to my grandchildren that can't hear the stories because they are very, very hard stories to hear. And in the book, I wrote, "Thank you to Melania" because you helped to bring Keith home and you helped bring the hostages home.
So I'm thanking you. And in my book, everybody that will read it will understand what happens to somebody that's 64 years old, kidnapped from a home and went through so many moments that I thought and was sure that I'm going to die. And I'm alive and I survived to tell. So thank you very, very much. I'll always remember the meeting with you, and I'll always remember your kindness.
Thank you.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you.
And good luck with the film.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Keith.
And we're gonna to make this world a better world together.
In peace. Sorry?
What did you say to the president after your meeting with Mrs. Siegel?
I gave him the books, the books that Aviva gave me and, uh, I explained the situation, uh, where she thinks, she thought that Keith was, how he was doing. She didn't have much information, but she knew how much he was suffering because she was with him for 50 days. And, uh, I explained to him everything.
That I know how hard he was working to release all of the hostages.
[Inaudible] Ukrainian children? Has President Putin agreed to release any more Ukrainian children?
I'm, I'm working on it. I'm working on it and, uh, we are in the process, so I hope we have success very soon. I will keep you posted.
Why do you feel it is appropriate to use an official White House event to promote your documentary?
This is not promotion. We are here celebrating the release of the hostages of Aviva and Keith. They were in, uh, Washington, DC and they called me, they said they would like to come over to thank me and to, uh, to give, uh, hugs and that's why we are here. There's nothing to do with promotion.
[Inaudible] say thank you after the letter?
He has.
Thank you. Thank you.
[Inaudible] there's a call from survivors to have Ghislaine Maxwell moved to a high security --
Thank you, press. Thank you, press.
We are here celebrating the release and the life of those two incredible people, so let's honor that. Thank you everyone.
Thank you. We're, we're ending.