A screening of the documentary NAZA in the Netherlands erupted into confrontation after bereaved Israeli mother Sabine Tassa took the stage and protested the film’s portrayal of the war, declaring: “Hamas terrorists murdered my husband and son.”
Several members of the audience responded by shouting “Shame on you” and “We don’t care.”
Sabine Tassa at NAZA screening
(Video: Ad Kan)
At the start of the NAZA screening in Delft, near The Hague, Avichai Shorshan, CEO of the Israeli organization Ad Kan, who accompanied Tassa on her trip to the Netherlands, attempted to project footage documenting the Oct. 7 Hamas attack onto the cinema screen using a portable projector. According to the organization, several audience members prevented him from continuing to show the footage.
Tassa, whose husband and son were murdered in the Oct. 7 massacre and whose other children were seriously wounded, then took the stage and addressed the film’s directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who were not present at the event.
“Look me in the eyes. You talk about collateral damage? My husband and my son were murdered by Hamas. Where is that in your film?” she said.
Members of the audience responded with calls of “We don’t care,” “Shame on you” and “We don’t want to hear it.”
In a statement to ynet after the incident, Tassa said: “My late husband and son were massacred on Oct. 7. The creators of NAZA are gaining fame at the expense of our dead, our soldiers and our children. A pair of privileged, self-righteous kids whose road to Hollywood fame is being paved by lies.”
“They are committing war crimes and should be put on trial as soon as possible,” she added. “My role is to fight antisemitism and change the narrative. That is my mission. The people of Israel live and breathe.”
Dutch opposition leader Geert Wilders also responded to the incident on social media.
“‘We don’t care.’ The callousness is unimaginable,” Wilders wrote. “Sabine Tassa survived the October 7 massacre. Her 17-year-old son was murdered at Zikim beach. Her husband was killed while shielding their two younger sons with his body from a grenade.”
“‘We don’t care.’ That is their answer to her suffering,” he continued, before accusing the political left of disregarding the truth and warning that its relationship with Islam threatened the future of the Netherlands and Western civilization.
“An audience can silence a voice. It cannot silence the truth,” Wilders wrote.
Sabine Tassa
(Photo: Yair Sagi)
Shorshan also condemned the film, saying: “The collateral damage caused to the State of Israel by this false film is inconceivable. This brainwashing can only be corrected through a rapid effort to expose the false witnesses and confront them with the truth.”
“We will not accept the spread of antisemitism in Europe,” he added. “We will continue to fight.”