Pro-Palestinian protesters attacked attendees on Tuesday night outside of the Simon Weisenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance while the Holocaust museum hosted a screening of the graphic footage obtained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from Hamas cameras that depicted the vicious atrocities terrorists committed during the Oct. 7 invasion of the Jewish state.
The 47-minute compilation video shows rapes, executions, and beheadings of Jews by Hamas and was mostly filmed by the terrorists themselves. The footage is being shown under the title "Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre."
The screening was in partnership with The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League and was by invitation only. There is also scheduled to be a screening in New York.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, there was a heavy security presence after a media outlet leaked the location, which resulted in threats from pro-Hamas protesters. The threats necessitated an FBI advance team leading up to the event and a large police presence, as well as private security.
The outlet reported that on Wednesday, only a few dozen protesters had gathered on opposite sides of Pico Boulevard.
Israeli actress Gal Gadot, star of Wonder Woman, who also served in the IDF, helped organize the event but was not present for it, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Her husband, Israeli film producer Jason Varsano, was in attendance as well as Oscar-winning Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv, in addition to other notables and influencers.
Nattiv, who spearheaded the screenings, previously told I-24 News, "As a filmmaker, I swore that these images of October 7 would not be forgotten, and the world would see them. Because now the denial begins - it is a fake, it is not a fake…We cannot pass by in silence."
The outlet reported that attendees were required to sign an NDA, pledging not to record or recirculate the footage. Rabbi Marvin Hier, the outgoing head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance, noted it was the eve of the Kristallnacht anniversary, adding that experts have estimated there should be 200 million Jews in the world today, but "there are only 14 million because we are the leftovers of pogroms" like the one of Oct. 7 and called Hamas "the Nazis of the 21st century."
According to the outlet, “The footage was gruesome. Among other things, it depicted Israelis being ambushed, shot through windshields, and beheaded with shovels, and it included audio of terrorists proudly parading around hostages and calling loved ones back in Gaza to boast about their misdeeds.”
“For some, it was all too much - a number of attendees could be heard weeping, and some left the theater mid-film, unable to watch anymore. For others, it was not enough.”
The graphic footage was previously shown to journalists and Israeli Knesset members. Following the screenings, journalists and politicians were seen crying and some didn’t even make it through the entire length of the footage.
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