During the North American premiere of the controversial documentary film “NAZA” at the New York Film Festival, dozens of pro-Israel demonstrators mobilized Saturday night outside Lincoln Center to protest the screening. Demonstrators held signs, deployed digital billboard trucks displaying large LED screens broadcasting raw footage of Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, and called on the public not to erase the horrific events that precipitated the war.
Video: courtesy of “Variety” Magazine X page
The Israeli-American Council (IAC) coordinated the protest. Noa Peri-Yanesh, a senior executive in the organization, emphasized that “compassion toward ‘Palestinian’ civilians does not require erasing Oct. 7 or ignoring Hamas.” Among the demonstrators outside was Rom El-Hai, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, who showed attendees firsthand video footage he recorded while fleeing the onslaught.
Inside the auditorium, filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor addressed the intense public criticism leveled against their work. The two defended their reliance on anonymous testimonies, claiming it remains an accepted journalistic standard in investigative reporting. Abraham stated that the film references the Oct. 7 massacre—which he described as “completely unjustified”—while asserting that it does not justify harm to ‘Palestinian’ civilians.
Rom El-Hai, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack | Video: courtesy of “Variety” Magazine X page
The film, constructed around anonymous testimonies attributed to purported Israeli soldiers, officers, and intelligence personnel, has provoked fierce indignation across Israel. The IDF dismissed the allegations out of hand, with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir declaring that the military “will not permit our soldiers to be turned into targets through lies and blood libels.” Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar formally requested that the head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) investigate the origin of the classified materials used in the film, as well as the true identities and clearances of the anonymous interviewees.