Pro-Palestinian activists are copying the slogans, ribbons, and ubiquitous hostage posters from the Israeli hostage advocacy campaign to demand the release of Palestinian security prisoners.
Swedish activists outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Sunday night protested with a banner with a variation of the slogan of the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum, “Bring them home.”
“Release all Palestinian Hostages,” read the banner, complete with a red ribbon, similar to the yellow one used by the Hostages Forum.
Red Ribbon campaign similar to hostage campaigns
“There are 9,500 Palestinian hostages in Israeli concentration camps,” shouted an activist through a megaphone in a video posted by climate activist Greta Thunberg and Europe Palestine Network, referring to a figure that includes terrorists, unlawful combatants, and rioters.
The activists displayed hostage posters similar to those used by Israeli activists to demand the release of those abducted by Gazan terrorists during the October 7 massacre.
The red ribbon campaign has appeared the most in the United Kingdom. Activists associated with the Bristol Palestine Alliance on November 15 tied ribbons and placed Palestinian “hostage” posters onto the St. Agnes bridge.
The campaign appeared on Palestinian news media sites on November 11 without attribution to the organizers, claiming to have posted red ribbon materials around Westminster.
The Palestinian Information Center wrote that the color red was chosen to represent the blood of martyrs and prisoners.