Hundreds protest as Edelstein walks to synagogue, day after women arrested for placing hostage flyers where he prays

Hundreds of people protest as MK Yuli Edelstein walks to synagogue in Herzliya after three women were arrested yesterday for putting flyers calling for a hostage deal on seats in the house of worship, the Ynet news site reports.

The demonstrators wave Israeli flags and shout “shame” and “forsaker of Zion,” the outlet says.

The chant is a reference to the fact that the Likud lawmaker was a Prisoner of Zion — a Jewish refusenik jailed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

The three women were released overnight after they were detained and handcuffed for some eight hours.

The flyers showed the pictures of four of the female soldiers taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, along with Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the two young children who remain captive in Gaza.

In the center is a picture of Edelstein from his time in a Soviet prison, with the caption “Let my people go,” a popular rallying cry by supporters of Jewish refuseniks.

כמו תמיד באירועים מהסוג הזה, המעצר מאתמול הגביר את המחאה באזור. הנה כך זה נראה היום בנתיב ההליכה של אדלשטיין לבית הכנסת בהרצליה. אם עד השבוע היו עשרות שעומדים במחאה שקטה, היום המספר גדל והמחאה לא שקטה pic.twitter.com/f3oduH7rBq

— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) September 14, 2024