Thousands reclaim the streets to support screening of October 7 documentary at Phoenix

The Jewish community reclaimed the streets tonight as over 2,000 people demonstrated outside the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley north-west London to show solidarity with its decision to screen an Israeli documentary about the October 7 terrorist attacks.

In the past week, there had been a widely publicised demonstration organised by anti-Israel activists to protest against the screening of “Supernova”, about the massacre by Hamas of 360 people at the Supernova music festival.

Last night, protesters graffitied “Say no to artwashing” on the front of the iconic cinema. This afternoon, film-makers Ken Loach and Mike Leigh stepped down from their roles as patrons of the Phoenix in protest against the cinema showing films from Seret, the festival of Israeli cinema, which was hosting tonight’s screening of “Supernova”, together with UJIA.

The pro-Israel crowd, which stretched down East Finchley High Rd, had anticipated a much larger protest from anti-Israel activists. But, in the end, the anti-Israel group, which numbered around 50 people, was dwarfed by the Israel supporters, who waved huge Israeli flags, held posters calling for the return of the hostages and did Israeli dancing in the street as traffic came to a stand-still.

One pro-Israel supporter told the JC she was at the rally “because as a daughter of a refugee, I am in disbelief that [the protest against the screening] is happening. Everybody should be able to see that what happened on October 7 was the most terrible massacre, rape, kidnap – what’s in their mind to be protesting this? It’s just hatred.”

An Israeli demonstrator said she had decided to come “to stand for Israel and to stamp out this horrible situation that will not allow us to say our thoughts and feelings without people protesting or damaging a cinema because it wants to show the truth.

“Those people don’t know what it’s like to live in the middle of Israel, to try to live with the conflict, to have to run with your kids to the shelter.The first thing my son asked when we moved to London two years ago was: ‘Mum, where can we find the shelter?’”

While most protesters on both sides of East Finchley High Road were loud but peaceful, a small minority of pro-Israel protesters crossed over the street to confront the other. The anti-Israel group were later escorted away from the scene by the police, who, together with CST, were out in force.

Pro-Israel supporters, some of whom admitted to having felt apprehensive about attending the rally, said they left feeling jubilant. One lady said: “I feel an immense sense of connection and pride. I can’t believe the feeling of unity. I’ve been to a few protests, but this one tops them all.”

Another told the JC: “I never imagined I would be dancing to Moshiah in the middle of East Finchley High Road, waving an Israeli flag. It’s unprecedented.”

One of the organisers, Orit Eyal-Fibeesh, said afterwards: “We wanted to show that Israeli art, pride and spirit cannot be stopped.”

“We think that the world needs to know and needs to see [what happened on October 7]. They can’t hide any longer behind the atrocities they’ve committed. For the few of the hostages that are still live, we owe it to them to continue to fight and continue to show that Israel is not the evil in all of this.”

Asked how many people she had expected to come to support the film screening, Eyal-Fibeesh said: “We realised that people were eager to show  up, but we didn’t realise how many people would come. There are people from across the community – left-wing right-wing, religious, non-religious. There is a wide consensus that Israel is alive and Israel is here to stay.

“We have our place – even in this country. We don’t want to hide. We will never hide. We will hold our heads high.”