“Barbaric” anti-Israel protesters have descended on an art exhibition memorialising the murder and rape victims of the October 7 Nova music festival attack, chanting “long live the intifada” and lighting flares outside the New York venue housing the installation.
Chaotic scenes filmed on Monday in Manhattan show a large crowd gathered outside the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, with some protesters screaming “Israel, go to hell” and at least one appearing to wave a flag associated with the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah as flares later lit up the night sky.
'Bigots' protest the Nova exhibition (Photo: YouTube)
The protest, which was organised by pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, began in Union Square, with the crowd making their way to the exhibit at 35 Wall Street.
Billed as an in-depth remembrance of the October 7 terror attack, the exhibition is intended to bring the horrific events of that day, and the “Tribe of Nova”, to New York City, recreating a festival “dedicated to peace and love” where hundreds of victims were slaughtered and sexually assaulted by Hamas. At 50,000 square-feet, it is one of the largest historical installations ever presented in the city.
Visitors, surrounded by remains salvaged from the festival grounds – including scorched cars, bullet-riddled toilet cubicles, and personal belongings left behind – are invited to join a plea for the safe return of the remaining hostages still being held in captivity by Hamas terrorists.
The exhibition also aims to capture “the enduring spirit of the Nova Tribe” with a “healing tent” – a lighthouse structure bearing the message “We will dance again”.
While the space inside is devoted to peaceful remembrance, footage shared on social media showed frenzied protesters outside, with one banner bearing the slogan “Long live October 7”.
Music executive Scooter Braun, who helped to organise the Nova exhibit, condemned the display from the protesters, saying: “I don’t understand why protesting a memorial for innocent music lovers who were raped and butchered and kidnapped helps.”
Writing on Instagram he told the protesters they should “go see the @novaexhibition and see the truth instead of standing outside listening to yourself.”
Ritchie Torres, a Democrat congressman for New York, described the protestors as “bigots”.
In a post on Twitter/X he wrote: “Anti-Israel bigots are protesting the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, which seeks to commemorate the lives of the hundreds of young Jews barbarically murdered by Hamas on October 7th.
“These bigots deny the massacre at the Nova Music Festival, calling it ‘Zionist propaganda’.”
He added that those who “deny, downplay, or defend the barbarity of Hamas are revealing themselves to be barbaric.”
A Republican congressman, Michael Lawler, described the protesters as “disgusting”, while Manhattan Borough president Mark Levine condemned the demonstration too, writing that the targeting of the exhibition was “not pro-peace”.
Instead, he said: “It is repulsive and vile. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District, said: “There’s only one reason why these protesters would march in front of a Manhattan exhibit in memory of those killed at the Nova music festival on October 7th.
“They support the terrorists who perpetrated it, and they want it to happen again.”
The exhibit was originally due to close on Sunday but organisers have extended it to allow more visitors to attend, and it will now remain open until 22 June.
Six people were arrested during the protest on Monday, three for disorderly conduct and three for jumping turnstiles, according to the New York Police Department.
The yellow and green flag of the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah is waved outside the exhibit (Photo: YouTube)
A reporter for The Free Press said she filed a police report after an anti-Israel mob “swarmed her” at the location.
In a video shared on X, reporter Olivia Reingold can be seen surrounded by protesters shouting “blood on your hands” and “genocide supporter”.
Reingold tells the protesters: “I’m a journalist. I genuinely want to speak with you. I'm just trying to do my job.”
The Free Press said: “They restricted her movement and blew air horns in her ears. One even grabbed her notebook and tore it apart, stomping on the pages but she refused to leave."
In another video shared online, a man declares: “I wish Hitler was still here, he would’ve wiped you [Jewish people] all out.”
Elsewhere in the US, at the University of California, Los Angeles, video footage shared on social media appears to show a local rabbi being assaulted on campus by protesters.
The rabbi’s phone is slapped out of his hand while he is recording and protesters can be heard calling him a “paedophile” and saying that they “hate Zionists”.
