Anti-government protesters spark anger with Passover pita display at minister’s home
‘One pita a day,’ spelled out with bread, references meager rations given to hostages; Idit Silman condemns ‘scum,’ other ministers say protesters don’t represent hostage families
Anti-government demonstrators sparked outrage Monday among right-wing lawmakers and others when they used pita bread to spell out a protest message outside the Rehovot home of Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman amid the Passover festival, a time when observant Jews are forbidden from eating or owning leavened bread.
The demonstrators spelled out the words “One pita a day” with the pitas, a reference to the meager rations that hostages are reportedly receiving in Gaza.
Silman helped bring down the previous government, headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, when she quit and cited, in part, the issue of leavened goods, or hametz, being allowed in public spaces during the Passover holiday.
She later joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, and was rewarded with a post of minister.
Silman slammed the demonstrators Monday, calling them “scum.”
“Passover. A street where most people are religious and traditional. These scum come to scatter pitas on the street,” she posted on X with a picture of the offending protest.
“It’s not for the sake of the hostages. It’s not for democracy. It’s not even for politics,” she said. “It’s just because they are disgusting types who have no basic human values. No concern for others, no respect for Judaism, and no civility. Absolute nothings.”
Other coalition ministers also condemned the incident.
“The despicable display by provocateurs at the home of Minister Idit Silman deserves to be denounced and condemned by all national leaders,” Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the Shas party said.
“It does not represent the families of the hostages. It is a provocation that wastes food, desecrates the sanctity of Passover, and does not inspire any solidarity. The entire nation despises you,” he said.
היום ה 556 להפקרת החטופים, מחאת הפיתות מול ביתה של עידית סילמן ברחובות:
״את אשמה! הפלת ממשלה על חוק החמץ,
אבל היום, כשהחטופים מעונים, מורעבים ומתים בעזה ואוכלים אולי רבע פיתה ביום,
את נדבקת לכסא כשרה בממשלה מושחתת שמחללת את קדושת החיים ומפקירה אותם בעזה.
פדיון השבויים מעל לכל!״ pic.twitter.com/KmsczA97bw— Hili Brook (@HiliBrook) April 14, 2025
Education Minister Yoav Kisch wrote on X: “The despicable and repulsive protest outside the home of Minister Idit Silman stems from only one reason — hatred.”
“Don’t pretend to represent hostage families,” Kisch added, claiming the protesters were a part of the “fringes” of Israeli society.
In a comment to Ynet, protesters said: “The hostages in Gaza are eating a quarter of dry pita a day, are being raped and tortured. Idit Silman betrayed the most basic values of Judaism — the return of captives, incorruptibility and public integrity.”
There were no reactions from opposition politicians.
Families of hostages taken on October 7, 2023, are marking the second Passover with their loved ones in captivity.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists in the October 7 onslaught. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 59 hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.