As the anti-Israel film "NAZA" screened at Sag Harbor Cinema as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival on Saturday, about 100 members of the Jewish and Israeli-American community gathered outside to protest, in an event organized together with the Israeli-American Council (IAC), East End Jews for Israel, the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, and #EndJewHatred.
"The goal of the protest was for a proud Jewish-American and Israeli to stand outside every place this film screens and say the truth of our people: that the IDF is the most moral army in the world, and no film, no stage, can blur that," said Ido Cohen, one of the leaders of the Hamptons protest and a member of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) community. "Just stop lying. The truth matters most, and the truth will win in the end."
Protesters stood near the cinema entrance holding signs and spoke with arriving festivalgoers, arguing that the film did not reflect the facts.
Alongside the Hamptons protest, the IAC has launched a petition calling on cultural institutions, film festivals and movie theaters across the United States to accompany screenings of "NAZA" with panels, survivor testimony, and background and context materials. The film is expected to continue to screenings in East Hampton, in the San Francisco Bay Area at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and in Los Angeles, with many of the screenings taking place around the third anniversary of October 7.