All language subtitles for Torn20241080pWEB-DLAAC20x264-CatAiD[_31282]

Why are you tearing them down?

- Get the fuck out of my face.
- Innocent people were kidnapped.

[foreign language]

- All right, I think that's good.
- Have a good day.

Fuck you, fuck you,
and burn in hell.

Bring them home!
Bring them home!

When I see people
tearing them down,

I don't understand.

It's not something political.

These people are being exploited

to get support for a genocidal
war against Palestinians.

(somber music)

This is about 75-plus years

of a settler colonial state.

♪

It's hard for me
to think about this individual

ripping down this poster

and going home and feeling
good about what they did.

The whole purpose of putting
those was to agitate.

It was to rile people up.

Those people who've ripped down
posters of hostages

reveal themselves
to have no humanity.

(applause)

(siren wailing)

You're ripping down posters
of kidnapped Jewish babies

in your little
Yasser Arafat scarves.

Make no mistake,
the posters are propaganda.

Of course they are.
It's a trap.

And you're willingly
walking into the trap.

(crowd yelling)

♪

(tearing noise)

♪

(street noises)

(news anchor)
We start with news that broke

over the weekend on Saturday,

marking a dark day
in the history of Israel.

The Islamist militant group
Hamas launched

a surprise attack on Israel.

(reporter)
Under the cover of the missiles,

a large-scale
infiltration began,

as Hamas militants
crossed by land, sea, and air.

The gunmen tore
through the streets,

leaving a trail
of casualties behind.

At least 1,200 Israelis
are said to have died.

(Liam)
On the evening of October 6th,

I was actually
on a friend's couch.

(soft music)

My cousin Sharon
lives in Nir Oz,

which is only
a mile away from Gaza.

(she laughs)

(Liam) So, usually,
everyone checks up on her

to see if she's okay.

Sharon was not answering
her phone.

And I heard also
at the same time

that my cousin Danielle,
who is Sharon's sister,

was visiting for the weekend.

(all) Mazel Tov!

Yeah, we kind of just
sat around watching the news,

desperate for information,

waiting and trying
to be hopeful.

in Southern Israel,
but what is more concerning

is these infiltrations
of militants,

and we are hearing harrowing
reports from Israeli civilians

who have been
barricading themselves

in their bomb shelters,
in their safe rooms,

going on the airwaves, calling,
pleading, begging for help.

I kept telling my brother,

"Oh, it's okay,
there just isn't, um...

there just isn't service
within the mamad (safe-room)."

I... I had to make myself believe
that everything was okay.

♪

And then, we got
the horrific voice note.

And that was the last voice note
that she sent to her family.

♪

(Liam)
I was just scrolling on TikTok,

and I came across this video

of what looked to be
Israelis on a tractor

with Hamas terrorists
around them,

bringing them into Gaza.

(shouting)

♪

(Alana)
When I spotted her in the video,

I had no doubt in my mind
that it was her.

Sharon was just here,
in New York,

and she came to my home,

and I did her hair
in my kitchen,

and so, it was
really a fresh memory

of her hair
and the back of her head.

Six of my family members
were taken hostage by Hamas.

It was...

♪

It's really hard
to put into words, um...

In a way, I think I...

I just tried to not think
of the worst.

Tonight, dozens of Israelis
who lived in these communities

are still missing
and believed to be kidnapped.

(Alana)
My family is honestly...

I know people say this,

but the warmest, most loving,
funny, kind, generous.

- And who's this here?
- That's Amelia.

Right before was Danielle, um...

They're babies, I mean,
they're children.

Like, what can I say?

They're beautiful,
and they're funny,

and they're silly little kids,
you know?

Like, look at her,

she's making a little heart
with her hands.

(Liam)
That's Sharon right there.

(Alana)
Sharon and David and the twins.

(interviewer)
Liam, what would you say

to the people holding
your family hostage right now?

Those terrorists?

(Liam)
These are human beings,

and I'm begging them
to please release them.

Please.

(traffic noises)

I started to spot
these posters around, um,

to see that other people
cared about them,

without even me asking them
to care about them, was...

something that really
helped me get through

every day since October 7th.

It meant, like, the world to me,

uh, to see that people cared.

(soft, tense music)

♪

♪

♪

♪

(television reporter)
During the raid, some fighters

also took Israelis as hostages.

Literally dragging people
across the border with Gaza,

including a Holocaust survivor
in a wheelchair.

(shouting, screaming)

♪

♪

♪

We are here at 95th and Lex
posting these.

(dramatic music)

(tape stretching)

♪

♪

The posters are popping up on
street corners across New York

and other cities
around the world.

They show Israelis
who have gone missing

or are being held hostage.

(television reporter)
Posters of the hostages taken

by the Hamas monsters

are plastered
just about everywhere.

(television reporter 2)
Little Raz might be from Israel,

but her photo and story
is reaching

all corners of the city,

along with hundreds of others
who are now missing.

(mournful music)

♪

I couldn't focus on
my day-to-day at all,

or anything mundane.

Um, it was immediately action.

I took off from my job,

so I wasn't really
doing anything else,

other than thinking
about this conflict, my family.

I began to put up these posters

basically every day
throughout New York.

It kind of became my mission.

♪

(horns honk,
distant siren wails)

♪

(Nina) I learned about
the poster campaign

fairly early on.

The hardest ones to see
were the children,

the Cunio twins,

the Bibas babies,

and the one that really hit home
on a very personal level

was Noya Dan.

Noya was autistic,

and that was personal,

because I have a son
who's autistic.

I just remember thinking,
"Oh, my God!"

And I had the same thought
her mother apparently had,

which was, "Thank God
she was with her grandmother.

Thank God she was
with someone who loved her,"

even in that worst
of all possible circumstances.

(dark music)

I went from the sort
of "Oh, my God" horror

to, "Okay, you can't sit there
and curse the darkness.

What are you gonna do?"

♪

One of the things
that I was so curious about,

uh, seeing the posters go up
all over the place,

is why it was that people
spontaneously were doing this.

♪

The effects of post-traumatic
stress disorder

are sometimes mitigated
if, during a trauma,

someone takes action.

And I think
this is one of the reasons

why people felt instinctively

that they needed
to do something.

♪

Even people who had never met

those people
who were taken hostages,

they are all re-enacting

that first action that family
members and friends were doing,

which was, "We are looking
for our loved ones.

We're trying to find them.

Does anybody know
where they are?"

♪

I really didn't do much
in regards to hanging posters.

I... I barely had energy
to eat or shower.

(sentimental music)

On October 7th, after my mom
woke me up that morning,

I just saw,
I couldn't even tell you

how many people posting,
"Come Home, Omer."

I don't think my body
was ready or meant

to feel
that amount of pain or grief.

Omer had been taken hostage.
I grew up with Omer,

so, even though
we didn't talk frequently,

the bond was still
very prevalent.

(boy)
So, what's your theme?

(Julia) I think we should do
a pirate theme for "Arrgh" C.

(Omer) That's gonna be
a "no" for me.

♪

(Julia laughs)

(Julia) I was grieving,
which was a very strange thing

to kind of grieve
a person that is still alive.

And I was so grateful for
the people who'd put up posters.

It made me feel less alone.

Like, it reminded me
of all of our memories,

'cause in all the pictures,
he's smiling,

which is very on-brand for him.

♪

And then you realize
why you're seeing his face,

and it just kind of

takes the floor out
from under you every time.

♪

(protestor) Avigail was taken
as hostage all by herself

after both of her parents
were murdered,

and her siblings stayed alive
only because

they, uh, stayed in the closet
for almost 10 hours.

We got to know her
as a three-year-old,

but today,
she's already four years old.

And, as surreal as it is,

we know
that when she'll come out,

we want her to know
that we celebrated her birthday.

(all)
♪ Happy Birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday,
dear Avigail ♪

♪ Happy Birthday to you ♪

- Bring them home now!
- Bring them home now!

(chanting continues)

(grim music)

♪

(protestor 1) Mr. Secretary,
you can bring them!

(protestor 2) Guterres,
we ask you to save our children!

- May I?
- Yes, you may.

♪

- How do you...
- You just hold it, just...

Well, first of all,
I want to say

that I have enormous respect
for your pain.

If I was prime minister...

♪

Namely, of Israel today,

my main priority would be
the release of hostages.

(distant explosions)

(news anchor) The skyline
of Gaza shrouded in smoke

as Israeli strikes
pummel residential buildings...

(explosion, shouting)

mosques that
the Israeli military said

housed Hamas command centers,

and tunnels long suspected

to be smuggling routes
for weapons.

Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed

to destroy the ability
of Hamas and Islamic Jihad

to govern and carry out
military attacks,

an effort he warns
will be long and difficult.

(murmuring, faint birdsong)

(woman) A thousand
kidnapped Palestinians!

A thousand
kidnapped Palestinians!

(solemn music)

There was a large gathering
through Midtown,

through the rain,

New Yorkers
taking to the streets.

This was a unity march of sorts.

It did feature pro-Israeli,
pro-Palestinian supporters,

a peaceful protest,
but there were over 100 arrests,

but things did remain peaceful.

♪

(protestor) Yesterday, 14
of my family members were killed

in the church bombing!

(crowd chanting)
Stop bombing Gaza!

Stop bombing Gaza!

(chanting continues)

♪

When I was putting up
these posters,

it would spark
a lot of conversation.

People cried to me
and I cried to them

on the middle of the street.

And then, also,
negative comments from people.

This man came up to me

and told me
that if I really cared about,

you know, children,

I would be putting up posters
of Palestinian children.

And then I said,
"This is my cousin's daughter.

She is captive in Gaza.
She's a hostage."

Um, and he told me

that she looks
like a white colonizer.

♪

(overlapping chatter)

♪

- Stupid assholes!
- What?

(Nina) Whole families and babies
have been living

in fetid tunnels underground,

being malnourished,
getting sick,

living with untreated wounds.

You know what their crime was?

Being at home
with their families.

It's a war crime.

If we don't protest war crimes,
what on Earth do we protest?

Answer me that.

Answer me why 3,000 Palestinians
have lost their lives.

(Nina) The civilian deaths
in Gaza are a tragedy...

- They're innocent!
- Are these the same...

(Nina) No, no, no,
hang on a second, stop!

Not all...
excuse me, ma'am...

♪

The idea of putting up posters
of kidnapped human beings

to call attention to them
as propaganda?

Fine. Sign me up.

Sign me up. Absolutely.

I'll join
that propaganda campaign

any day and twice on Sunday.

They need to come home.

(overlapping chatter)

♪

(Alana) At this point,
I don't have a reaction.

I just want to get them home.

That's all I think about,

all... all we want
is for them to come back,

and we want the world
to come with us,

to... to help us
to bring them home.

They are my sisters,
I grew up with them.

I went to Israel
every summer of my life.

Sharon and Danielle
are my sisters.

♪

(Liam) I was putting
the posters up

in Washington Square Park,

and as I'm walking there,

I saw these two women
walk past me

and kind of give me a face.

Hey, what are you doing?
What are you doing?

- I'm tearing this down.
- You're taking down...

- That's my cousin.
- Girl...

- That is my cousin.
- Girl...

(Liam)
Do you want her to die?

Do you care about her?
Her life?

She's in the hands
of terrorists right now.

Seeing it in...
live, in real time,

it's a feeling that
I... I can't really describe,

an anger that I've never
even felt before in my life

against another human being.

♪

(Julia) I remember
the first time I had seen

that posters
had been ripped down.

I'd walked down into
the Union Square subway station,

and both walls when you enter

were lined
with all of the hostage posters,

and the left wall
was all torn down.

Omer's poster
had been ripped in half,

like, right down the center, um,

and I... I started digging
through the papers

to try and find the other half.

These two women
came up and started

putting them all back up again.

At the time,
I genuinely thought it was just

some crazy person,
some bigoted person.

I didn't realize it was

the start
of a much bigger thing.

(woman) What are you doing?

Why are you ripping it?

- This is disgrace! Look!
- You are disgusting!

♪

(indistinct)

(man)
I don't... I don't give a fuck.

Get the fuck out of here.
You're a scumbag.

(man)
Why are you taking those down?

Uh...

♪

(she chuckles)

(man) Why are you laughing?
That's not funny.

♪

(woman)
Why are you ripping them down?

- Woo!
- That's what I'm talking about!

Yeah!

(woman) Hey, why are you
taking this down?

Why are you doing that?

♪

(woman) Would you like
to tell me your name?

Would you like
to share what you're doing?

♪

(spits)

(man) Why are you
ripping down posters?

Karine, can I ask you,
there's been on social media

and frankly, on news broadcasts,

uh, a lot of videos
of individuals

who have been
tearing down signs,

many of these taking place
in New York City,

of Israelis presently
being held hostage in Gaza.

There have been some tense,
um, confrontations

that have taken place there.

Is the White House's view

that these actions
should be condemned,

the pulling of...
the pulling down of them,

or that that's a form
of peaceful protest?

(Karine) Look, I...
I've sort of, kind of seen

the reporting here and there.

I think it was
from last week, right?

(journalist)
There have been, like,

30 million videos
that have gone around...

(Karine) No, I know;
I hear you. I hear you.

I'm just not going to...

We're not going to...
I'm not going...

(journalist) Is that peaceful
protest to pull that down,

or should you not be doing it?

(Karine) I'm just not going
to go into, uh, specifics

on that particular thing.

(Rabbi Sarna) A colleague
of mine at NYU, Jonathan Haidt,

has been writing and speaking
about the way

an increased use
in social media,

particularly among the young,

has reinforced a moral binary.

When you go on social media,
you either see the viewpoints

that reinforce
your own viewpoint,

or you see the most absurd
version of the other side.

And there is no more gray.

There's only a fine line
that separates

between the colonized
and the colonizer,

the oppressed and the oppressor.

And within this worldview,

any violence inflicted
on the oppressed is a crime,

and any violence inflicted
against the oppressor

is freedom fighting.

Seeing these faces

is the ultimate challenge
to that binary view.

(dark music)

♪

(Julia)
It's very painful,

and there's a lot of anger.

But I... I wouldn't say
I'm surprised.

♪

I think a lot of younger people,

my generation in particular,

you know,
we grew up on social media,

and I... I don't like blaming
Instagram for everything.

But, you know, I'm very...
I'm guilty of this, too.

If I don't like
what someone's saying,

I just unfollow them,

and I don't have
to see it anymore.

(woman)
♪ Into the trash you go ♪

♪ Ceasefire now
and free Palestine ♪

(man) What is your reasoning?
I want to hear it.

My whole reasoning is
that my people have been

getting slaughtered
in Palestine for years... years.

I haven't seen a single poster
about my people.

I haven't seen a picture

of my friend's grandmother
who got slaughtered.

I haven't seen a picture
of his family

that got kicked out
of their house.

I haven't seen shit
for my people.

So, when I see shit for this,
I don't... I don't feel for it.

I don't fuck with it.

How would you feel if people
were posting shit about police

when shit was happening?

You know how that is,
that's not fair.

The Israeli military said today

it struck
over 450 militant targets

in the past 24 hours.

The Hamas-run
Health Ministry says

more than 8,000
Palestinians have been killed,

and the humanitarian crisis
continues.

Al-Qassam Brigades has fired
a large barrage of rockets

from Gaza towards Tel Aviv,

reportedly intercepted
by the Iron Dome,

and this is being described

as one of the largest barrage
of rockets on Tel Aviv

since October the 7th.

The fact that those rockets
are still being fired

is showing that Hamas
still is going strong,

and they're trying, certainly,
to send that message

that nothing so far
has been able

to quash their capabilities.

(reporter) Israel is expanding
its battle against Hamas

with tanks on the ground
and more strikes from the sky.

The death and destruction
is widespread.

Buildings in the Gaza Strip

obliterated
into nothing but rubble.

Hospitals are flooded
with Palestinian patients

and forced to treat the injured
outside.

Do you think that genocide
against Palestinians

- is justified?
- It's not genocide.

Actually...

(woman) They came
into my people's country

and they murdered us.

Have you heard
about colonization?

Have you heard of that?
I don't think you have.

Go colonize somewhere else!

Fuck Israel! Fuck you!

Fuck your propaganda!

(tense music)

(man) Why are you taking
those signs down?

Where are the Palestinians?

(man)
So put your own sign up!

(man 2)
Who took any Palestinians?

(woman) Do not put signs
over our posters!

Your posters are propaganda!

(woman) What do you mean,
they're propaganda?

They're using my life
for propaganda.

(woman)
They are not.

Let's put up...

Let's put up the 3,000 kids
that were killed in Gaza.

(man)
You... you can do it!

(woman) Please stop
ripping posters down.

These are innocent civilians
in Israel.

Fuck you, fuck Israel.

(man) Why did you put your mask
on? You're embarrassed?

You're ashamed
of what you're doing?

(man 2) You're supporting
genocide and ethnic cleansing.

♪

(Aaron) The Israeli-Palestinian
conflict has always been

one of the most divisive
political issues

in the United States,

on college campuses
and elsewhere,

and so,
it wasn't surprising to see

both that people were
putting up these posters,

and that others had
a visceral reaction to that,

uh, and were tearing them down.

The act of putting up a poster

is an act
of expressing a viewpoint.

Now, when someone else
comes along

and rips that poster down,

that's really akin
to a heckler's veto, right?

It's people deciding
what others are able to see

and what speech and views
they're able to listen to.

(pensive music)

♪

(Elisha) I think
that the hostage posters

have a real presence

that not a lot of objects do,

that only a photograph can have.

♪

You see photographs
of people staring out at you,

and they're there.

♪

I remember the first time
I saw a ripped poster.

Someone had really just

slashed the face
of Qaid Farhan al-Qadi,

the Bedouin guard
of Kibbutz Magen.

♪

I couldn't look away,
at that point.

I decided to document it.
I had an old camera.

(shutter snaps)

You'd see spray-painted
hostage posters.

You'd see feces, occasionally,

and this really disturbed me...

burned hostage posters.

Every variety of someone's
violence against the hostages.

And it was...

demoralizing.

♪

There's a certain kedushah,

there's a certain holiness
to the hostage posters.

So, what if I collect
all the remnants

and keep them?

♪

So, very quickly,
I start developing a collection.

♪

I'd never considered

how powerful
an image on the street could be.

Not before the hostage posters.

♪

We just want to be seen.

I can find something very
intellectual to say about it,

but I'd really just rather say
that we want to be seen.

♪

And they want to be seen.

Why would you rip down
posters of hostages?

Because it is perpetuating
a completely false narrative

that the Israelis
are the victims,

of which I do not promote,
uh, any violence

towards any innocent
human being,

regardless
of their background or beliefs.

And those people that have
their pictures on those posters,

I do not know them,

and I do not wish
anybody who is innocent

any type of harm.

It is more
of a symbolic gesture,

because it is
pathetic propaganda

that they are putting into,

uh, civilian areas
that we are living in,

and they're perpetuating
this narrative

to keep subconsciously...

Why don't you answer
my questions?

Why you would rip down

posters of people
who've been taken hostage?

All due respect
to anybody who is suffering,

uh, the loss of people
that they love,

which many people
around the world

are currently suffering from,
but there's always a spotlight

on a specific
demographic of people,

because, apparently, just like
George Orwell would say,

"Some people are more equal
than others."

(director)
I reached out to several people

who took down the posters...

- Hm.
- but they declined

to be interviewed.

I have prepared some answers
based on their statements,

so I would love for you
to read some of them,

and then respond,
if you would like.

"In our last conversation,

I begged my grandfather
to stay safe.

The very next day, an Israeli
bombing took his life.

I loved him so deeply
and my heart is bleeding.

These posters that portray
Israelis solely as victims

are just about
rallying more support

for the Israeli government,

not about advocating
for their return.

As if this whole thing
started on October 7th.

In Israel, these posters
might pressure the government

to make deals they wouldn't
otherwise consider.

But here in the U.S., our role
is mostly about deciding

whether to send
more military aid to Israel.

So, these posters
aren't really about

bringing the hostages back.

They're about pushing
for more destruction."

♪

I actually think this is
an interesting critique.

You know, what is...

what is the U.S. posture
toward Israel,

toward the Palestinians,

toward military conflict
in that part of the world?

What is the solution?

Are there solutions?

I mean, this could be the basis
of an actual conversation.

But you can't have
that conversation

just by tearing down posters,
or, frankly,

just by putting up posters.

(man) Excuse me,
why are you taking those off?

Why are you taking those off?

Because it's causing
the conflict to be worse.

(man)
No, it's not.

By you taking this off,
you know what it does?

It shows that Jewish victims
are not okay.

My friend is
one of those people,

and you're taking them off?

And that's sad, but I don't see
how that helps the conflict.

(man 1)
It's war propaganda.

(man 2)
Tell the world

how you can't hold
two thoughts in your head.

You can only care
about some people,

but because they're Jews,

they don't deserve
your sympathy.

I am not anti-Semite.
I am pro children living.

(man 2)
You're not anti-Semite?

It's propaganda, because
you're not gonna find them here,

so I don't know
why you put 'em up.

- Why are you doing that?
- I don't want your cousin

to get killed by IDF bombs.

- Please call the police.
- It's dishonest, man.

It's dishonest that kids were
kidnapped out of their beds?

No, man,
that's not what I'm saying.

So, what is dishonest
about the kidnapping poster?

It was kidnapped, right?

It's propaganda
to justify the murder of...

So, were kids not kidnapped
out of their beds?

Oh, please.

(soft music)

(Chen)
I grew up in Israel.

I live in New York
for the past 30 years.

My kids grew up here.

They have friends from all kinds
of religions, colors, like...

It's a diverse society,

and I love it.

Since October 7th,

every morning,
I will arrive to work

and hang the poster outside.

And every day,

people would come
and tear the poster.

- (tearing noise)
- Why are you doing this?

(Chen) Please don't touch it.
It's private property!

It's private property!

There were a lot
of pro-Palestinian rallies

right down the block
from my store.

(crowd chanting)
Intifada, Intifada!

- Long live the Intifada!
- Long live the Intifada!

They started to target my store
every single day.

Excuse me, private property.
Can you please stop?

What's your name?

She's ripping off our sign.

I'm sorry,
it's private property.

- Okay. I don't give a shit.
- Okay, you done?

You should be
ashamed of yourself!

(Chen)
Shame on you!

I'm putting the posters
every day,

and I'm gonna keep putting them.

I had to close earlier.

Uh, we had to lock our door.

It wasn't... it didn't feel
a safe environment.

The police suggested

that maybe if I move it
from the window,

the Star of David,

it won't cause so much, um,
negative attraction

to our store.

I refused, because I said,
the day I have to remove

the Star of David
from my window,

it's the day
I move from this country.

(somber music)

And they started to send me,
um, direct messages.

♪

I was very determined
that they won't break me.

(cell phone notification)

♪

I will keep putting it
until they bring them back.

The wall is back.

And if anyone can come help us,

we're planning to do also
this pillar.

One night, a huge crowd
of pro-Palestinian rally, um,

came from down the block.

(shouting, chanting)

(protestors)
Ceasefire now!

Ceasefire now!

(man) Free, Free Palestine!

(protestors)
Free, Free Palestine!

(man)
This is private property.

(Chen)
Stop touching!

This is not
how you talk to people!

Not by violence!

(protestors)
Free, Free Palestine!

(man)
Free, Free Palestine!

(Chen) They tried
to break the door,

like banging on the door,

banging on our window.

(banging)

I ran to the back office,

sat on the floor and hide there,

and tried to call the police.

(shouting)

My co-worker yelled to me,
"The police is outside."

And I'm like, "What do you mean
the police is outside?"

(man)
Shame! Shame!

You're a disgrace
to your grandparents!

(shouting)

(Chen) Is this
how we're safe in New York?

Is this how we're safe here?

I was shocked.

I felt there is no one
to protect us.

♪

I decided for the safety
of my employees and everyone

to take a little break
and stop putting the posters.

I felt defeated
and I felt broken.

♪

(man) Fuck... fuck all you
Israeli motherfuckers.

Motherfuckers.

Get the fuck out of here.

(man) I'm taking it off, bitch,
you got a problem with it?

(man)
He already threatened me.

Get the fuck out of here.
I'll knock you the fuck out.

Get the fuck out of here
before I punch you...

(woman)
What the fuck?

(woman)
Yo! Ow!

(woman)
Hey! What... what are you doing?

(woman)
What the fuck?

Why did you just come up to me
and assault me?

♪

(Liam)
My cousin Moran told us, like,

"Please try to go back
to your lives."

♪

Before I went to work that week,

that video of my cousin Danielle
came out...

♪

Which was...

♪

Painful
to see her look like that

and to see her
in that situation.

(Alana) I watched it
over and over again,

and I cried,

and I said to myself,

"Well, she's alive.

At least there's that.
It's proof of life."

Um... And then I said,
"Of course they picked her."

Of course they chose my cousin.

She's strong
and she has a voice,

so I wasn't totally surprised,

but there was a sense of relief
for sure.

(Liam)
We had a sign of life.

It was so scary, though,

and it was almost embarrassing
that, like,

the world was seeing my family

in such a horrible,
vulnerable situation, uh,

at the mercy of terrorists.

(soft music)

♪

So, I had posters
that were, like,

right outside my apartment,
that I could see from my window.

And usually they were torn down

within, you know,
12 to 24 hours.

So, I decided to go and get
a little security camera

to see who exactly
was doing this every day.

♪

It was multiple people
that were doing this,

but one guy in particular,

you could see in the footage
that he had a knife on him.

♪

This wasn't, like,
just someone that was walking by

that decided in the moment
to tear down these posters.

This person left their home,
or their job, or whatever,

with the mission
of tearing down posters

of kidnapped Israelis.

♪

I put it on my social media,

and immediately
the video blows up,

gets thousands of views.

Then, there were people
that were identifying

the individual
on the video, too.

My intention
wasn't to cancel these people

or dox these people.

It was just to show
the world that...

what's happening
to people like me.

(reporter) Dr. Ahmed ElKoussa,
a South Florida dentist,

seen here in Brickell
taking down posters

of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.

There was outrage
over this video,

and Dr. ElKoussa
was swiftly fired

from his job at CG Smile.

- You fired him right away.
- Right away, without hesitation.

(reporter) Now, the dentist
giving his side to the story.

Unfortunately,
my video of four seconds

gotten taken
way out of context, uh,

as well as the way
that my former employer

had portrayed it.

A woman was filmed
at an upscale shopping center

removing posters
of Israeli children

who have been taken hostage.

She has been identified
as a doctor named Zena Al-Adeeb,

and she has now been fired.

One of the NYU students
was caught ripping down posters

of Israeli hostages has been
identified by her NYU peers

as Hafiza Khalique.

So, do you guys think
the school should expel them?

So, after I was filmed
tearing down these posters

outside of Tisch Hall, um,

a student at NYU circulated
the video on social media, um,

and she was calling
for us to be doxxed.

Uh, shortly after,
celebrities, public figures,

and Zionist platforms
with millions of followers

were sharing
our information publicly.

Under the petition that was
calling for me to be expelled,

along with the other students,

people said that they are
pulling their donations if NYU

does not take disciplinary
measures against us.

So, it's clear that,
even NYU admits it,

that relevant stakeholders

and people with wealth and power

are the reason
why I was suspended.

"It was Saturday night
and I was at home watching TV

when my phone started buzzing
with messages.

That's when I discovered
that someone had filmed me

when I was taking down
a kidnapped poster,

and that video made its way
to an Instagram account

that decided
to name and shame me.

I hoped the storm would pass,
but by Monday morning,

emails were flooding
my organization's inbox

demanding I be fired,
calling me an anti-Semite.

A few days later, I was fired.

♪

Even after I was fired,
the direct messages kept coming.

Dozens of emails
with death threats

and threats of sexual violence.

All I did was take down
a piece of paper

that I believed hurt everyone
and stood for nothing."

♪

This is a very disturbing story.

Um, I do think taking down
a poster, in and of itself,

should not be
a fireable offense.

I think it...
it reduces the space

for people
to express themselves.

I do think there were instances

where people
should have been fired,

people who expressed heinous,
violent, hateful views.

But in this instance,

it seems to me
that an injustice was committed

against this person
who had a right.

I mean, I disagree
with how this person

chose to express his opposition,
his or her opposition.

And calling the hostage posters

"hurting everyone
and standing for nothing,"

to me, is kind of
an obnoxious critique and, um...

But people are entitled
to be obnoxious.

That's, you know,
the privilege of being human.

(man) Hey, look at that,
taking all the stuff down.

Nice to meet you!

Now the whole world
is gonna meet you.

Hi, hello!

- No, no, no, no, no.
- Don't worry about it.

(woman) Okay, you'll be
all over the news.

- Don't worry about it.
- Going to be all over the news.

What is your name?
You're so proud of it.

What is your name?
What is your name?

Show your face!

(Aaron)
When people disclose

personal information
about someone,

when they disclose
where they work

in order to encourage others
to get them fired

for their speech,

that creates
an intimidating atmosphere

where many people
are gonna shy away

from speaking publicly.

This is really a continuation
of the phenomenon

that's commonly referred to
as "cancel culture," you know,

which reliably creates
a climate of fear

and self-censorship.

When you know that the price
of speaking out on these issues

is as high
as losing your livelihood,

you may reasonably calculate

that it's just not worth
the cost.

(man)
Why do you take them out?

(man)
Why'd you tear that flier down?

(woman) Oh, I was just
looking at it closer.

(man)
Mm-hm.

♪

(reporter) The death toll
in Gaza continues to rise.

The U.S. is urging Israel
to reduce civilian casualties.

All of this following
a breakdown in talks

to release war hostages.

(reporter) The Hamas-run
Ministry of Health

says the death toll inside Gaza

now surpasses
15,000 Palestinians.

People were... are calling
for a ceasefire.

Netanyahu has said
that the ceasefire

will not happen until all
of the hostages are released.

At the same time,
Hamas has implied

that the hostages
will not be released

until there is a ceasefire.

So, already we can see
that these groups,

these parties
are at loggerheads.

(protestors)
Free, Free, Free Palestine!

(reporter) Organizers
of this rally called for people

to flood Brooklyn for Gaza,

and that's exactly
what they did.

The massive group marched
to the Barclays Center,

then the Brooklyn Bridge,

temporarily closing it
to traffic

to march across to Manhattan.

We're gathered here today
to condemn the ongoing genocide

of the Palestinian people

perpetrated by
the Israeli government

and funded
with U.S. taxpayer dollars.

And we will continue to protest,

not just until the siege
and blockade ends,

not just until U.S.
military funding to Israel ends,

but until Palestine is free.

Somebody that we love grew up
in the West Bank, in Palestine.

Um, what's happening to them
is not fair.

It just shows how corrupt
our government is

and what they're doing
to these poor, innocent people

who have never done anything
to anybody.

I'm all in favor of peace,

but you got to add
"free the fucking hostages."

(protestors)
Palestine will be free!

(woman)
Free, Free Palestine!

(protestors)
Free, Free Palestine!

(cheering)

- We don't want no two states!
- We don't want no two states!

- We want all of it!
- We want all of it!

I think pressure works,

and you should keep pushing
until the dam breaks

and never stop.

This is not enough, okay?
Only...

And... and once
the ceasefire comes,

an end to the occupation.

I don't feel angered

by anyone sharing and expressing

their solidarity
with the Palestinian people,

with the people of Gaza, at all.

Um, I just wish there was...

they had more space for us
as well.

They dismissed us.

They dismissed us

for a cause they feel
more passionately about,

they feel is more worthy,

instead of being able
to hold space

for both people's grief.

(woman) Wow, you really don't
care about hostages

and kidnapped people.

Neither do you.

- (woman) Of course I do.
- No.

(woman) Ugh, you have no idea
how heartbreaking it is.

- Like Gaza? Or just Israel?
- All of it.

Wow, this is like
my first "Karen" encounter.

Oh my God, guys,
this is kind of, like, exciting.

(Julia)
On October 6th,

I really loved
where I was in life,

and I had a lot of friends.

I like
to consider myself friends

with a lot of people at school.

And then October 7th hit,

and so many people that I came
into contact with every day

who I thought I mattered to

and who I thought
cared about me...

didn't actually.

A lot of the fighting
was going on online,

and then you'd have to show up
to class with these people

who had just said some
really horrible things to you,

or who had just posted really
ignorant or bigoted things,

and you just had to sit
next to them

and talk about
your homework assignment.

(cell phone ringing)

(Alana) I very quickly saw
some friends turn away from me,

and when I say that,

I mean a lot of it
on social media.

Unable to share anything
about my family.

I heard from Palestinian friends
who checked in on me.

I don't know why other people
couldn't reach out.

It was silent.

There is a silence, um,

that... was heartbreaking.

(somber music)

(protestors)
Bring them home!

Bring them home!

Bring them home!

(cheering)

My name is Alana Zeitchik,

and I'm here to tell you
about love.

I love my family.

And I promised

I would scream to the ends
of the earth for them.

For too many in the West,

the suffering
of hostage families like mine

has become a footnote,

collateral damage in service

of some perceived
higher universal truth.

For too many,

it feels like to care
about one family,

to love one child,

is to diminish the suffering
of another.

But the simple human truth

is that you don't have
to choose.

You can abhor the suffering
of Palestinian families

and the suffering
of Israeli families like mine.

(cheering, applause)

Do you think that in this space
that we're in right now,

there's room to have empathy
for the Israelis

who lost their lives?

If you turn on
any mainstream channel,

you'll see the stories
of Israelis

on every screen you look to.

And so I think, for me,

I will continue
to use my platform

to uplift the voices
of Palestinians

and the struggles
they're going through.

And they are asking us
and begging us

to share their stories,

and that's what
I will continue to do.

(Linsey Davis) Do you have
empathy for the Israeli victims?

I think whether or not
my empathy goes to Israelis

or to Palestinians
is really not the question here.

What the question is,

is will we call for an end
to this genocide

and will we call
for a ceasefire?

(soft music)

♪

This is a Jewish community.
We know.

(woman) So what's wrong with
putting up kidnapped posters?

So, why do you come
to people's homes

and vandalize
with signs of hate?

(woman) Why do you keep
taking them down?

(woman) She's not putting it
on their homes...

(man) My neighbors
keep taking them down

because their wives
are Palestinian,

and one of their wives are Arab,

and they don't want
to see signs of hate.

(woman) And you know that
they only also kidnapped Arabs?

Go to your own homes
and put the fucking signs up.

- You're doing this out of spite!
- We want to show

that bringing home
the kidnapped people

- is important.
- Whoever's taking them down,

- you want to see.
- Or you're taking them down.

So you want to come
to people's homes,

and keep putting up
out of spite.

The people
who posted these posters

skipped this entire neighborhood

and found the one
Palestinian restaurant.

These posters are being used

to target Palestinians
in our community.

The point of those posters,
in and of itself,

is not to be, like,

"Look at all these children
that are lost," okay?

The point of these posters,

the real point of these posters,

is so that someone goes
and fucking tries to rip it off

so they can fucking film it,
and go,

"Look,
look at these scary Arabs,

they hate it, they have
no interest in Israeli lives."

Okay?
It is the next wave of, like,

don't think about
3,000 murdered children

with our tax dollars
and our missiles,

and instead talk about
how... how... how horrifying

what these guys are doing is.

♪

(Aaron)
It may be in some cases

that people
are putting up posters

with the intention
of causing anger in others.

But that's all part
of the debate, right?

I mean, that's... so that
may be worthy of criticism.

People may say that,
"Look, by doing this,

you're not helping
bridge the divide

between the different sides
of this conflict."

But the people doing it,
at the same time,

may argue that,

"This is the way that
I think is most effective

in expressing my views,

and I want to put
these posters up

where people who disagree
with me will see them."

Maybe they're not doing that
in the most productive way,

but, again,
that's all part of the debate

that is allowed to happen
in this country

under the First Amendment.

(man)
No, what are you doing?

Do you know
where they are right now?

You have any idea
where they are right now?

I'm not fucking Jewish.
He's not Jewish.

I don't know if he is or not.
It doesn't fucking matter.

This is fucking the U.S.A.,
it's New York City.

You don't have a fucking right
to touch that shit.

It's a free country.

You can wave your Palestine flag

or say death to the Jews,
or America,

or whatever you want,
but we can put a fucking sign.

(distant siren wailing)

♪

(Nina) The posters helped
to raise awareness

to activate people here, sure,
but at the end of the day,

how that translates
into lifesaving intervention,

I'm not sure
we're making that leap

and that the postering
is contributing

to making that leap.

That's a hard thing to conclude,

and I hadn't really thought
about it that deeply

until you asked the question.

♪

I just got tired
of playing Whac-A-Mole

with these sort of
invisible enemies, as it were.

And I said, "I'm not doing it
anymore," right?

The definition of insanity

is you do the same thing
over and over again

and you expect to get
a different result...

which is sort of, in some ways,

a metaphor for the whole, um,
mess in the Middle East.

♪

(Elisha) We wouldn't be moved
to put them up

if they didn't work.

It's really effective messaging.

♪

I did it for us.

I did it because I thought
that there's something healing

about changing our environment.

There's something therapeutic
about it,

there's something empowering
about it.

But it's nice to know

that we're not just
talking to ourselves.

No one would rip it down
if they didn't care.

I don't think
we can convince many people,

but they clearly have
some sort of power

or we wouldn't be doing this,

and I wouldn't have spent
this much time

doing what I'm doing
because they're powerful.

Just hours from now,

we expect a pause
in the fighting

between Israel and Hamas,

the first step toward
an expected hostage release

on Friday.

We don't yet know the names
of who will be in that group.

And it goes without saying,

it has been an agonizing wait
for their loved ones.

♪

(Alana) My cousin Moran told me

that Danielle and Sharon
were on the list.

It didn't feel real,

and I could not have
any sense of relief

until I saw them home.

The Red Cross says
they are in their custody.

The Israeli military confirmed

that they have been handed over
by Hamas to the Red Cross

and are making their way
to Israel.

♪

(Alana) The first time
they showed clips on the news

of the Red Cross trucks
coming through,

I ran up to the TV.

I could see a glimpse
of Danielle's hair

from the side.

♪

(horn beeping)

And I just started crying.

I just saw her,
I knew it was her,

and she was on her way home.

♪

And I will never forget
the image

of Sharon and the twins.

Sharon, and another woman,
wearing these pink outfits,

each of them holding
one of the twins sleeping,

flanked by terrorists
wearing black,

and, once again, you know, I...

had a sigh of relief.

Um, couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe my eyes.

I... it was a second miracle.

♪

Everyone in the world
was watching it

as if it was, wow,

this amazing release
of Israeli hostages.

And for me,
it was seeing people I love, um,

return from hell.

(reporter) They'll be taken
to a military airbase

in southern Israel,
then on to an Israeli hospital

and ultimately reunited
with their families.

(Liam) This is our first time
seeing them.

It's an indescribable feeling
of relief.

♪

Fighting resumes in Gaza

with no agreement to extend
the seven-day ceasefire.

It's also important
to understand

why the pause came to an end.

Uh, it came to an end
because of Hamas.

We remain intensely focused
on getting everyone home,

getting hostages back.

There are still about
120 hostages remaining in Gaza.

One of them
is 22-year-old Omer Neutra.

(protestors)
Bring him home!

Bring him home!

(Orna Neutra)
Our son Omer,

he was born in New York City

one month after 9/11.

And here we are 23 years later,

and he's the victim of another
vile terrorist attack.

Imagine waking up every morning

praying that he, too,

is still waking up
every morning.

That he is strong
and is surviving.

(cheering, applause)

I think the first few days

when I was thinking
about Omer, I...

I really was hoping
that he was dead.

Of course,
I wanted him to come home, um,

but the thought of what
he would have to live through

before he got to that point...

(distant horn blaring)

But I feel really horrible
saying that.

(soft, tense music)

♪

It's also hard to say

if the person
who's gonna come home

is the person that I remember.

♪

I hope he still has his light
at the end of all this,

and his humor,

but there's really no way
of telling.

♪

My cousins are coping
in very different ways.

They also have
different experiences.

Danielle has come home

with a sense of resolve
and purpose.

She's become an amazing advocate

for all the hostages.

Prime Minister Netanyahu,

seal the deal now

and bring them all back now!

♪

Sharon, on the other hand, is
in a total state of depression.

How could you not be?

Not only has she experienced

a traumatic,
terrorizing kidnapping

filled with smoke and gunshots
and blood and death.

♪

Now she has to wait
for her husband,

and she knows
what he's experiencing.

♪

The children ask about him
all the time.

I was there,
and they run around the house

singing a song they made up
about their father, you know,

saying, "I want my dad,
but he's still in Gaza."

That's not normal.

♪

(laughs)

I think Hamas
is a vicious enemy,

and the hostages were
the ultimate bargaining chip.

At the same time,
what is devastating to me

is the ways in which Bibi
and his government

have placed so little emphasis
on the fate of the hostages.

They almost seem like
a nuisance to him.

It feels like a hopeless place.
But, you know, as Jews,

we're kind of
cockeyed optimists,

and the last thing we do
is give up all hope.

♪

Gaza's Health Ministry says
more than 30,000 Palestinians

have been killed in Gaza
since October 7th.

♪

(reporter) The IDF says
it has killed or captured

more than 14,000
Hamas combatants...

(explosions)

but Hamas continues
to recruit, to regroup...

♪

to regenerate.

(explosion)

Is this an unwinnable war,
would you say?

This conflict will only end
with a political solution.

It won't end
with a military victory.

♪

(Julia) I just really hated
seeing them, ripped.

I pretty much found one
on every single lamp post,

every mailbox.

♪

I wanted to take something

that I knew was once
beautiful and meaningful

and restore the beauty
of our community.

♪

Yeah, I just ended up creating
a bunch of these paintings.

♪

One of my professors was like,

"If Omer comes home
and he were to see this,

what would he think of it?

♪

You need to make it
more hopeful, less angry."

♪

Trying to make my experience
palatable for them

felt like a total cop-out.

♪

There was... there was no hope.

There's...
Nothing about the situation

would lead a normal person
to be hopeful.

I think the posters did
a really great job

of showing who people are
and the world we live in

and who is really there for us.

I think these posters
kind of threw a stone

and the ripples woke us up.

Resistance is justified
when people are occupied!

Resistance is justified
when people are occupied!

(Alana)
I think the kidnapped posters

gave us something tangible
and actionable.

It was able to provide
a sense of belonging,

a sense of feeling
like you're doing something.

And at the same time,

I think it illuminated
something for us.

Through the tearing down
of the posters,

we learned about
this fracture in our society,

this gaping hole
of, you know, moral, um,

moral compass
that exists in our society.

So, shining a light
on something that we need to fix

is inherently a good thing.

(shouting)

(Aaron) Part of the problem
with cancel culture

is that it runs on this blinding

moral and intellectual
certainty, uh,

where people increasingly view
those on the other side,

not as people who have
good faith disagreements,

but as bad people
with evil motives.

And when you view someone
that way,

then it becomes easier
to justify shutting them up.

Censorship and cancellation
don't change people's minds.

They're not persuasive.

And what they actually can do
is just cause resentment.

There's a quote attributed
to Sigmund Freud that goes,

"The first human to hurl
an insult instead of a stone

was the founder
of civilization."

(horn blaring, siren wailing)

(reporter)
That escalating feud overseas,

prompting both passion
and protests

right here in New York City.

Both countries,
Israel and Palestine,

have a strong representation
right here in New York City,

and those airstrikes
can be felt right here at home.

(indistinct chatter, shouting)

(solemn music)

(man) You're not gonna
get close to my friend.

(man)
He attacked me!

- You know, I am pro-Palestinian.
- Great!

- Then hold the fucking flag!
- I am! I am!

- I want to do it freely.
- Hold the flag!

- I want to do it freely.
- They rape people!

They kidnap them!
They murder them!

- What are you standing for?
- You murder people!

- You're here, go to Gaza!
- Yeah, I murder people. Yeah.

(man) A fucking white
supremacist Klan rally!

White supremacist? Did you see
the color of my skin?

You calling me
white supremacist?

(man)
Yeah, you Zionist fucking cunt!

Shut up, you Zionist,
apartheid, genocidal cunt!

(woman) I'm a proud Zionist!

(indistinct)

You ugly piece of shit!
Walk away, bitch. Walk away.

(man)
Fucking losers.

I wish we lived in a world...

♪

Number one, where there
wasn't a war to begin with,

and we all lived
in peace and harmony.

That would be nice,
that would be lovely.

♪

I wish, at very least...

♪

we could share the poles.

They'd put up their images
of their children.

We'd put up images of ours.

And it would be sad,
and tragic, and angry,

but we'd all share
the public space.

I want to live in that world...

♪

Where we can share the poles.

(somber music)

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(sad music)