From Edelstein blasts protesters: ‘They turned the hostages into currency. They have picnics and do yoga’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Launching a harsh critique of the protest movement while addressing representatives of the hostage families in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, chairman Yuli Edelstein claims that some of the demonstrators are coopting the hostages to promote what he says are unrelated goals.
“Nobody can reproach the families but I do not forgive people who turn the hostages into currency to promote goals that have nothing to do with them,” he says.
“No one tells the families what to do and no one preaches morals to them. My late wife also did things that were less widely accepted when I was arrested,” says Edelstein, who was a refusenik and prisoner of Zion in the Soviet Union before being allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1987.
“But when I see the same people near my house for four years — just changing shirts and signs — having picnics, yoga, Pilates, drinking beer and singing in public, I don’t forgive them,” he says.
The lawmaker is apparently referring to the practice by protesters to hold casual gatherings near his home after they were prevented from holding demonstrations by police. Yoga sessions have been held worldwide in honor of murdered hostage Carmel Gat, as part of protests calling for a deal.
Edelstein also appears to backtrack on his initial support for the police over the arrests of three women last week for placing flyers on the seats in his synagogue featuring the images of six hostages held in Gaza as well as an image of him as a young man, with the words “Let my people go” across the top.
“Regarding flyers and actions for the hostages, nobody will be arrested and I am the first to join this struggle,” he says.
The women’s detention is now the subject of an internal police investigation.
The lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party on Sunday publicly backed the arrests and said he “completely understood” why “the people of my synagogue filed a complaint with police after they discovered the break-in that took place apparently in the evening hours or at night.”
Edelstein referred to the incident as a break-in, despite security footage showing that the synagogue was open when the women entered.
The warden of the synagogue has said that there was no break-in at the synagogue and that the arrests were “insane.”
