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The Israeli-American Council organized a protest Saturday afternoon outside the New York Film Festival premiere of “NAZA,” which the organization has described as an “anti-Israel” film that “makes serious allegations about the IDF’s conduct in the Gaza Strip while ignoring findings and information that contradict its claims” and fails to present the full “context of the October 7 attack that led to the war.”
“We mourn every innocent life lost in this war, Israeli or Palestinian. But compassion for Palestinian civilians does not require us to erase October 7, ignore Hamas or accept one narrative without questioning it,” said Noa Peri-Jensch, chief communities officer of the Israeli-American Council (IAC). “This is why we are here today: not to prevent anyone from speaking, but to make sure that our voices, our experiences and the truth are being heard as well.”
“NAZA,” which was shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv and shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” recently won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival. The documentary is now set to release in more than 50 territories before becoming available to stream for free on The Guardian’s website.
As “NAZA” screened inside Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, more than 50 protesters gathered outside the venue, where mobile LED trucks projected graphic footage from October 7 and portraits of those who were killed that day. Demonstrators carried various versions of signs that read, “LEARN THE FACTS. KNOW THE TRUTH.” There was also an additional security presence outside the venue, with over a dozen police officers on watch.
Peri-Jensch introduced Rom El-Hai, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack on the Nova music festival. He said “it doesn’t surprise [him]” that the New York Film Festival would screen a film made by “traitors” to the Israeli cause.
“If there is someone here who wants to make a film about genocide, about hatred, brutality and killing innocent people, all the material is here,” El-Hai said, flashing his phone to the crowd. “I took pictures of everything. I saw the hatred with my own eyes.”
Karen Toledano, a protestor who stood in solidarity with the IAC, expressed that she feels like Israeli voices “have been stifled” within the creative community
“I feel like our voices have been stifled in spaces that have called themselves inclusive for many years,” Toledano said. “Sometimes when I do try to have a calm conversation and I’m encountered with anger, I know in my head that there just isn’t an argument on the other side. But it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow when really all you want to do is talk about the facts and set the record straight.”
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant address to the U.N. General Assembly, which prompted a mass walkout of delegates who left the room when his speech began, “Where were you when the Iranian tyrants butchered and maimed tens of thousands of unarmed Iranian civilians?”
Hundreds of pro-Palestine protestors gathered outside the United Nations building, resulting in roughly 100 arrests, including Hannah Einbinder and Susan Sarandon.
“The U.S. government has the power to bring an end to all of this killing, pillaging, and land theft, yet instead it chooses to welcome the butcher of Gaza with open arms,” Einbinder wrote online after being released from detention. “The fact that the orchestrator of all this bloodshed is roaming freely in our cities is an indictment of BOTH REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS who enable and protect architects of genocide like Netanyahu. Let us not mistake the spectacle for the story: genocide is the headline, and it is time for it to end.”
