The Blogs: An Act of Love: Remembering Inbar ‘The Pink Raven’

Dateline: April 2025 – Modiin, Central Israel

On Route 443, near a junction which turns you off the Lod-Jerusalem highway towards the town of Modiin, there is a poster of a young woman’s image with the following legend in Hebrew:

‘Ani Gam Isha. Gam Hachziru Oti!

I am still a woman. Bring me back too!’

Of the 58 hostages still in Gaza, there are just three women. All three have been confirmed as dead. Two of them, Judi Weinstein Haggai and Ofra Keidar were 70 years of age when they were captured by Hamas. The third, Inbar Heiman, whose image can be seen across Israel as well as on that poster on Highway 443, was 27 when she was brutally abducted by knife-wielding terrorists on a motorcycle.

May the memories of these three beautiful souls – Inbar, Judi and Ofra – be blessed.

Inbar was a volunteer helper at the Nova festival site. Her boyfriend Noam Alon didn’t travel to Nova with her but was in contact by text. On that fateful morning, 7^th October 2023, she hid under the stage together with two men, Priel Biton and Rom Dahary. Following police texts to evacuate the site, the three escaped and hid in bushes. When the terrorists approached they ran towards Kibbutz Be’eri, not knowing that it had been overrun by armed squads. They were pursued for three kilometres over fences by men wielding knives. Says Biton:

‘We ran in the fields until we reached a dirt path. They were right behind us… he (the terrorist) was already next to her, pointing his knife at her. I ran towards her hoping he’d mover forward…’

The terrorist let go of Inbar. Priel shouted at her to run away but she just froze. ‘She just stood there and cried’. Inbar’s mind and body had reached the limit of their resistance and she could no longer move. Two more terrorists arrived on a motorcycle, snatched the exhausted Inbar and disappeared. No longer able to help her, the other two men escaped.

On October 8^th, Hamas posted images of Inbar on the Telegram app in the distinctive joggers she had been wearing on the morning she was captured. She appeared beaten up and bloodied before being hauled away by four masked men. On December 16^th, the IDF confirmed that Inbar Heiman had been murdered by her captors.

Despite how Inbar’s story ended this is not how Noam, her parents, Ifat and Haim, brother Ido and many friends want her to be remembered.

* * *

I didn’t know much about Inbar Heiman before September last year, when, during a visit to Tel Aviv, I started noticing her image in several locations in the streets around Hostages Square. It was the same when I returned in February, and it made me curious about Inbar; why is her picture more in evidence than other hostages who have sadly been lost? During our Pesach visit last month, I decided I wanted to find out more about Inbar and discovered that the clues are to be found in the streets themselves.

At the time of her death, Inbar was studying visual communications at the WIZO Academy of Design in Haifa. She was already an accomplished writer and gifted creative artist. From jewellery design and production to poster painting she worked across many genres. But her real passion was for street art, graffiti. And her work can be found today in unlikely places.

Source: Hillel Kuttler ‘Upon a Pink Cloud’. Photo courtesy of the Heiman family Inbar’s love of spray cans led her to many adventures. She even used the nozzle of one of her spent cans as part of a costume chain she made for a friend. She wanted her art to be accessed by anyone and everyone, not hidden in a museum. Her friend said that Inbar liked the idea that with graffiti, ‘I can be appreciated and anonymous at the same time’. She was ‘excited about the risk’ of creating images on public property.

Source: ‘Bring Them Home Now’ Facebook page, 16th November 2024

Inbar dubbed herself ‘Pink Question’ for her favourite colour and her innate curiosity – a moniker she shortened to ‘Pink’. And Pink or the Pink Raven is how she is remembered now by those who knew her and who long for her to be returned, somehow to her loved ones.

‘The Pink Raven’ Source: Tru Amta. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Lois StavskyBefore serving in the army, she spent her national service year teaching, in mixed Jewish-Arab schools in Israel’s south. Inbar’s mother, Ifat said about her daughter following her capture:

‘She has so many friends. They love her so much. And that’s solely a tribute to her personality, her charisma, and her desire to give.’

Noam said:

‘Inbar and I have been very close since the first day we met. One of the reasons for that – besides the fact that she’s beautiful and charming – is that she’s truly an amazing person. She’s kind and helpful and positive, and she’s an amazing artist and sweet and funny.

She’s a really good friend – she’s always there taking care of other people and putting others first. You just want to be next to her.’

Source: National Library of Israel Facebook Page

Ifat says that she and Inbar confided in each other and shared all of their secrets.

But Ifat didn’t know much about her daughter’s art until after her death, when WIZO classmates brought her paintings and creations from Haifa to the family’s home in Petach Tikva. Some of her art has since been displayed throughout Israel and even at the United Nations. Several students at WIZO — and at Ariel University and the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design — have dedicated their graduate projects in Inbar’s memory.

Says Ifat, ‘It brings back her light, and it strengthens me.’

On Instagram, tributes to Inbar’s talent and treasured personality are legion. Benzi Bronfman posted that he painted a mural showing Inbar painting her self-portrait as part of his own graffiti art project. He invited people to come and see ‘Pink Alley’ in Gan Ha-em in Haifa where the murals are displayed.

Source: ‘Bring Them Home Now’ Facebook page, 16th November 2024

Under the handle bring.inbar.home with nearly 3,500 followers, the following post appears:

‘Inbar Heiman was such a beautiful soul. She truly spread joy and love everywhere she went and was a true beacon of light, which was evident in her artwork.

She is commemorated on walls around the world in the form of street art, calling to bring her home. The artists have tried to capture her beautiful spirit.

We won’t be able to truly grieve and mourn her until she is laid to rest at home, near her family, after receiving a dignified and proper burial.’

The University of Haifa stated that, ‘those fortunate enough to share in her world will remember her, not only for her artistic prowess but also for her joy, inspiration, and warmth.’

Two weeks after Inbar’s death was announced, a group of artists assembled for a painting tribute to her life and work in Tel Aviv. They included Dudi Shoval who created this wonderful portrait of Inbar, as she is best remembered. Some of the images created that day including Shoval’s and Tru Amta’s Pink Raven are recorded on Street Art NYC, one of the leading websites which celebrates Street Art and graffiti with 47,000 followers on Facebook and 23,000 on X.