Olympic legend Dwight Stones and his wife, Lynda, were scrolling through social media when they came across an image that stopped them in their tracks: a painting of a father with his arms wrapped around his two children — except the children are nowhere to be seen. They immediately knew who the man was — Doron Bibas — and who the children were: four-year-old Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir.
The entire family was kidnapped by Hamas from their home in Nir Oz, Israel, on Oct. 7. Shiri and the Bibas’ two children were later murdered, while Doron was released in February 2025 after enduring unimaginable physical and emotional torture.
“The Bibas Family” is a small, 7.7-by-8.7″ painting by Israeli artist Anat Zehavi who lives in the Netherlands.
“The painting went viral on social media,” Zehavi recalled. “Lynda saw it in a Facebook group, searched to find out who the artist was, and then messaged me, saying, ‘This is my painting.’”
By sheer coincidence, the couple happened to be visiting the Netherlands for a sporting event. They then traveled to Zehavi’s studio in The Hague to purchase the painting.
“She told me that when they saw the painting, they started crying. It moved them so much,” Zehavi said. “It’s crazy that someone wanted to buy it because it’s not an easy painting to look at. But Lynda told me they had to have it and she knew exactly where she is going to hang it.”
Dwight Stones, who was born in Los Angeles and is Jewish, has long been a strong supporter of Israel. At 18, he represented the United States at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where he won a bronze medal in the high jump. But his Olympic experience in Munich was forever overshadowed by the massacre of 11 members of the Israeli delegation, who were taken hostage and murdered by members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September.
He would later compete in the Maccabiah Games in Israel and was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.
Zehavi moved to the Netherlands after looking for an art academy. After completing her studies, she returned to Israel in 2001 and moved to Kibbutz Nir Oz, where she started a family.
She remained in Israel for several years, but 20 years ago, after the birth of her son, Dion, she moved back to the Netherlands.
Although Zehavi knows the Bibas family, she said she did not dare contact them about the painting. She noted, however, that Doron’s mother shared the painting on her Facebook page.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Zehavi painted large oil paintings on canvas. But afterward, she felt something shift within her and completely changed her style and medium. She began painting on pieces of wood she finds on the street, cleaning and sanding them before creating what she describes as “anarchist art with strong political and social statements.”
One of these paintings was of Queen Elizabeth II, which Zehavi created after the Queen’s death in 2022. She depicted the Queen wearing a yellow jacket and striking the famous pose of legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, with one fist raised in the air.
The painting became so popular that Zehavi began selling dozens of prints, eventually prompting her to open a shop.
“Ever since the Queen died, it’s as if she’s been working for me,” she joked. “I sell a lot of copies of the painting, both through my website and in the shop.”
However, Zehavi has no plans to create or sell prints of the Bibas family painting. She said she never intended to sell the original either; it was something she felt compelled to paint as a way of releasing some of the anger and sadness she felt after the Oct. 7 attack.
She also painted another victim of that day, Shani Louk, a 22-year-old tattoo artist who was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas after attending the Nova music festival. Zehavi depicted Louk with her long locks of hair, adding a tattoo along her arm that reads: “To be Jewish is to remember.”
