Israel-Hamas poster war tears the social fabric of New York

A young man walks purposefully toward a bunch of "Kidnapped" hostage posters stuck to a fence and tears them down. Asked why he did so, he replies: "Get the fuck out of my face".

The tone is set for Torn, an unsettling, deeply important documentary that reflects the evolving political stance on the Israel-Gaza war through a contentious poster campaign on New York City streets.

Far from the conflict that exploded on October 7, the Kidnapped campaign achieved its objective to raise awareness of the hostages but incidentally weaponised fierce differences between New Yorkers. The city has the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in the US.

The posters became flashpoints as visceral clashes turned the city into an ideological battleground days after Hamas stormed Israel, killing 1200 Israelis and taking 251 hostage.

Torn down, defaced, burnt, spraypainted, slashed and erased, they mirror a fractured, paranoid community driven by fake news, hatred and antisemitic protests.

"I show the clashes on the streets of New York. Some of them are very hard to watch because you see raw hate," says the film’s award-winning American-Israeli director, Nim Shapira.

Torn, which follows events for three months after October 7, remains timely and necessary as global protests intensify amid urgent calls for a ceasefire and the hostages’ return. If the posters reflect the ire of Palestinian protesters, they continue to provide solidarity and support to those grieving the hostages.

American-Israelis Liam Zeitchik and his sister Alana – an advocate for Israeli and Palestinian coexistence – are seen in the film stunned as they watch the October 7 atrocities play out on TV. Six of their Israeli cousins were abducted. All have since been released except a husband and father, David Cunio, and his brother Ariel.