Kidnapped From Israel Posters

About

Kidnapped From Israel Posters, also known as #KidnappedFromIsrael Posters, refers to a viral campaign by two Israeli-American artists to create a series of posters of Israeli hostages captured by Hamas during the October 2023 conflict and encourage people to post them in public spaces in other countries to raise awareness. The posters are available on a dedicated website and the group has a presence online among various social media platforms. Over the course of October 2023, the posters became increasingly embroiled in controversy as videos of people tearing them down or removing them and sparring with those who wanted to keep them up gained traction online.

Origin

Following the October 7th, 2023, attack by Hamas on military members and civilians in southern Israel, the terrorist organization took over 200 hostages during the invasion.^[9] The Israeli government responded with a bombardment campaign in the Gaza Strip (reportedly in preparation for a ground invasion),^[10] causing the deaths of many civilians alongside Hamas militants. In various countries, such as the United States where the #KidnappedFromIsrael poster campaign began, Israel's conduct in Gaza was highly controversial, as well as Hamas' taking of hostages.

Starting around October 12th, a small group of Israelis based in New York City produced a series of posters and put them up online, encouraging people to download, print and display them to raise awareness (example shown below). The artists claim to have initiated "one of the most widespread guerilla public artworks in history," and say they are "unfunded" by any outside organization.^[1] The organization also maintains Instagram and Facebook pages, which have been active since October 13th.^[2]

Spread

As posters went up around the world from mid-to-late October 2023, particularly in Europe and the United States, backlash against the artists and their efforts also grew. Users on X / Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and other platforms filmed others tearing down posters, as well as arguments that resulted from their actions. For example, on October 12th, 2023, a video was posted to X by the account @StopAntiSemitism purporting to show Muslim women in London tearing down some #KidnappedFromIsrael posters. The video received over 31,000 likes in the course of two weeks.^[3]

Many posts centered around college campuses or major cities in the United States where poster removals and vandalism took place. On October 16th, an incident where purported NYU students removed posters went viral on X and was covered by outlets such as Newsweek the next day.^[4]

On October 19th, 2023, Fox News personality Guy Benson shared a poster to X (seen below) that he claimed was from the University of Chicago with a lively debate about Israel and Palestine carried on by people annotating it, receiving just over 200 likes in a week.^[5]

Viral videos also spread on TikTok, with tabloid publications like the New York Post boosting videos posted by accounts such as @StopAntiSemitism. Often, these videos partially or completely sought to identify or doxx the person seen taking down the posters.

For example, the New York Post shared a video (seen below, left) to TikTok on October 18th, identifying the man as a UPenn Library staffer and earning almost 11,000 likes in a week.^[6] Miami dentist Ahmed El Koussa, who lost his job over a video of him taking down a poster, defended his actions in another TikTok video (seen below, right) that was posted by the Daily Mail on October 20th and received almost 5,000 likes in a similar timeframe.^[7]

Often, the posters became a site for public debate about the escalating war in the Middle East. Supporters of removing the posters argue that they frame the conflict in a way that unfairly favors Israel, pointing out the increasing civilian casualties in Gaza. For example, X user @zonexkiller, in a post seen below that earned over 1,200 likes in a day on October 26th, called the posters "a cynical way to funnel money to Israel lobby."^[8]

Others online refer to the posters as "propaganda," such as the X account @Sprinter99800 who posted a video of a woman in Boston removing the posters on October 21st, which received over 58,000 views and 1,400 likes in six days (seen below).

On the other side, supporters of the posters argue they put them up to raise awareness and show support to people in Israel. For example, X user @PrinceArihan^[11] made a post on October 20th, 2023, noting that they added the posters to their website "to extend our support to the people of Israel," receiving over 70 likes and 30 retweets in one week (shown below).

On October 27th, 2023, a viral video showing a conflict between a man ripping down the posters and a group denouncing his actions was widely spread online. The X account @nyscanner posted the video that day, receiving over 4.2 million views, 19,000 likes and 5,600 retweets in six hours (seen below).

Various Examples

External References