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They became the poster children of hate.
Anti-Israel protesters and left-wing agitators in NYC who ripped down “kidnapped” Israeli hostage posters after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on the Jewish state are the subject of a new documentary.
In the weeks and months following the horrific incursion that left 1,200 dead and 251 taken, the personalized posters of each of the captives in Gaza – from 9-month-old Kfir Bibas to 85-year-old Shlomo Mantzur – that hung on poles and in public spaces became a flashpoint.
The countless clashes inspired Israeli native Nim Shapira to document the sharp divide in “Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets.”
“I saw the posters go up and I was proud of my city,” said Shapira, a Brooklyn resident of 13 years. “I started seeing the posters come down – and I recognized every corner.
“It was really painful.”
The phenomenon sparked a disturbing trend.
“This is antisemitism at its deepest level. It’s an expression of inhumanity at its deepest level,” Rabbi Joseph Potasnik told The Post in 2023. “I don’t understand the depth of hatred.”
The 75-minute film shot in the first three months of the war in Gaza, includes voices of activists, hostage families and artists who try to make sense of the proxy war unfolding thousands of miles away.
It’s currently streaming on torn-film.com and touring at private screenings across New York through November.
Torn, which was included in a special feature hosted by the Oscars’ “Academy Conversations,” unpacks the motivations behind those putting up and tearing down the posters.
“The film is about whose grief gets to exist in public space,” said Shapira.
Confrontations on the streets of the Big Apple were heated – and often outright hostile – with accusations of genocide hurled at those who dared to challenge the gleeful hooligans who relished ripping down the posters.
Some were caught on video and their callous actions posted to social media — which included one Mayor Eric Adams staffer whose job was to promote diversity and a young woman who was caught in 2023 and later wound up working in Assemblyman Zohran Mamandi’s office — leading to doxxing and firings.
Liam Zeitchik, a New Yorker who had six family members abducted, said in the film, “I started to spot these posters around – it meant the world to me to see that other people cared about them.”
That feeling of solidarity with his Big Apple brethren wouldn’t last long.
No sooner did Zeitchik affix a poster of his 5-year-old blonde niece, Emma Aloni, in the days following the attack, then he faced sharp pushback from one instigator: “She looks like a white colonizer.”
For Shapira, it’s a moment of much-needed self reflection.
“Not only the posters were torn, but the social fabric of New York was torn apart,” said the director, days ahead of the second anniversary of Oct. 7. “We have to find a way to live with each other.”
English (US)