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After conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7, “kidnapped” flyers with pictures and names of people kidnapped by Hamas started appearing across the U.S. — and Palo Alto is no exception.
Located on a signboard on Cambridge Avenue are rows of such posters, with pictures of kidnapping victims ranging from a nine-month-old to an 80-year-old. One depicts a 4-year-old Israeli child identified as Raz, pictured standing next to a bench behind a bouquet of flowers. Another shows 80-year-old Gadi Moses and 69-year-old Efrat Katz, who appear to be a couple.
The flyers are part of a street art activism campaign by Israeli artists Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, who were in New York City when the war broke out and launched the campaign to raise awareness about the missing people.
“I am not happy about what is happening in Gaza; it is awful,” Mintz told the New York Times. “I want the Palestinians to be free from Hamas; I want our children to learn together; I want Palestine to prosper and to be wealthy, but they need different leadership.”
Mintz and Bandaid told the Times that they chose to focus on the hostages because they felt their release back to their families would help de-escalate the war. The two artists identified the subjects of their posters based on their own outreach to their friends and relatives and created digital copies in 12 languages, such as Portuguese and Serbian, for the public to download and print themselves.
It’s unknown who posted the flyers in Palo Alto.
Kim Naru, a Mountain View resident, saw many of the same posters plastered on light poles in Los Altos.
“I’m not Jewish but I want the Jewish community to know there are many of us who share their outrage and heartbreak over the bloody massacre and kidnapping of innocent by Hamas and support the Jewish community unequivocally,” Naru said.
The flyers have gained popularity on social media since Mintz and Bandaid began working on the project, with celebrities and public figures such as Gal Gadot sharing them on Instagram.
“Take a photo of this poster and share it,” the posters read. “Please help bring them home alive.”
