Woman detained for placing hostage flyers says police signaled arrest was politically motivated

Rama Enav, one of three women detained after placing flyers calling for a hostage deal on seats in a Herzliya synagogue attended by Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, tells the Kan public broadcaster police hinted to her that the arrests were politically motivated.

“It was hinted to us more than once by the police that they were receiving orders from above,” Enav says.

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.

“I don’t understand how Edelstein, someone who sat in a Soviet prison and knows what it is like to be a detainee, can be indifferent to this plight,” Enav says. “I don’t understand how someone who was there can be angry when he sees these flyers, that all they have on them are kidnapped women and children.”