‘They turned the hostages into currency’: Edelstein blasts anti-government protests
At the same time, Likud MK appears to backtrack on support for police arresting women who placed hostage flyers at his synagogue
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"
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein claimed on Wednesday that some of the people demonstrating for the release of Gaza hostages and against the government are coopting the captives to promote what he said are unrelated goals.
Addressing representatives of hostages’ families at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which he chairs, Edelstein said: “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.
“There are things I can forgive — the hatred I receive on WhatsApp, including from 15-year-old children. I can also forgive all sorts of political things. I cannot forgive and I have no right to forgive contempt for the hostages, the cynical treatment of the hostages by making them into [political] currency,” he said.
“When I see the same people near my house for four years — only changing their shirts and signs while having picnics, yoga, Pilates, drinking beer and singing [outside my home], I don’t forgive them.”
The lawmaker was referring to the practice by some protesters of holding various themed gatherings outside the homes of coalition MKs in protest of the government. Yoga sessions have been held worldwide in honor of murdered hostage Carmel Gat as part of protests calling for a deal.
The bodies of Gat and five other hostages were recovered from a Gaza tunnel by the IDF earlier this month. Following their deaths, the Hostages Families Forum, which said it had previously taken pains to stay apolitical throughout the last 11 months, began merging its rallies with the vociferously anti-government protests taking place a few blocks away at Tel Aviv’s Begin Road.
Despite his criticism, Edelstein appeared to backtrack on his initial support for police over last week’s arrests of three women for placing flyers demanding a hostage deal on seats at his synagogue.
“Regarding flyers and actions for the hostages, nobody will be arrested and I am the first to join this struggle,” he said.
He added: “No one can tell the families what to do and no one can preach morals to them. My late wife also did things that were less widely accepted when I was arrested.”
The flyers distributed last week featured the images of six hostages still held captive in Gaza as well as an image of a young Edelstein — who was a refusenik and prisoner of Zion before being allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1987 — with the words “Let my people go” across the top.
The women were questioned on suspicions including breaking and entering, but security footage showed that the synagogue was open when they entered to place the leaflets on congregants’ seats. One of the three said she was arrested and handcuffed while at home in front of her young children.
The women’s detention is now the subject of an internal police investigation.
תיעוד ש @JoshBreiner ואני מביאים של הנחת תמונות החטופים בבית הכנסת אוהל משה בהרצליה, המקום פתוח, אחת הפעילות נכנסת פנימה, פותחת דלת צדדית וממנה נכנסות השלוש לשים את הפליירים על כסאות בית הכנסת. שווה שמונה שעות בתחנה?
הפעילות השתחררו לבסוף ללא מעצר בית אבל בתנאי הרחקה מבית… pic.twitter.com/AByWjzyX0V
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) September 13, 2024
Edelstein, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, had 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.”
The warden of the synagogue has said that there was no break-in at the synagogue and that the arrests were “insane.”
Asked whether the synagogue had called the police, Itai Mauda said: “We absolutely did not.”
