The posters calling for the release of Hamas hostages were created in New York by two Israeli artists. Since then, they have spread to all continents.
They appeared in the streets around the world immediately after the Hamas attack on Israel: these posters with the words “Kidnapped” on a red background as well as the photo, name and age of each of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas. Palestinian terrorist movement on October 7. We owe these posters to a duo of Israeli artists, Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, 33 and 36 years old, currently in residence in New York.
The couple was inspired by the milk cartons found here in the United States in the 80s and 90s with photos of missing children. “We wanted to use this image to reflect what is happening with our hostages”explains Dede Bandaid.
They print 2,000 posters which they put up all over Manhattan, on walls or bus stops, and put them up for free download on social networks. “The next day, we discovered that our post had gone viral, even superviral, overnight!says Nitzan Mintz. We walked around New York and saw lots of posters that we hadn’t printed.”
“We received photos from all over Europe, South America, New Zealand, everywhere!”
Nitzan Mintzat franceinfo
“There aren’t many countries that we haven’t reached with posters,” continues Dede Bandaid. In 48 hours, their posters, now available in 33 languages, are present on all continents.
They assure that their approach simply aims to put pressure on world leaders to obtain the release of the hostages and that there is nothing political about it: “We can be concerned about the hostages and the Palestinians at the same time”, underlines Dede Bandaid. They point out that they have received no help from the Israeli government, only support from volunteers around the world.