(woman) Why are you tearing them down?

-Get the f--- out of my face.

-Innocent people were kidnapped.

All right, I think that's good.

Have a good day.

F--- you, f--- you, and burn in hell.

(crowd chanting) Bring them home!

Bring them home!

(student) When I see people tearing them down, I don't understand.

It's not something political.

(woman) These people are being exploited to get support for a genocidal war against Palestinians.

(somber music) (Dima) This is about 75-plus years of a settler colonial state.

♪ (John Kirby) It's hard for me to think about this individual ripping down this poster and going home and feeling good about what they did.

(Daniel Ryan Spaulding) You're ripping down posters of kidnapped Jewish babies in your little Yasser Arafat scarves.

Make no mistake, the posters are propaganda.

Of course they are.

It's a trap.

And you're willingly walking into the trap.

(crowd yelling) ♪ (tearing noise) ♪ (street noises) (news anchor) We start with news that broke over the weekend on Saturday, marking a dark day in the history of Israel.

The Islamist militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.

(reporter) Under the cover of the missiles, a large-scale infiltration began, as Hamas militants crossed by land, sea, and air.

The gunmen tore through the streets, leaving a trail of casualties behind.

At least 1,200 Israelis are said to have died.

(Liam) On the evening of October 6th, I was actually on a friend's couch.

(soft music) My cousin Sharon lives in Nir Oz, which is only a mile away from Gaza.

(she laughs) (Liam) So, usually, everyone checks up on her to see if she's okay.

Sharon was not answering her--her phone.

And I heard also at the same time that my cousin Danielle, who is Sharon's sister, was visiting for the weekend.

(all) Mazel Tov!

Yeah, we kind of just sat around watching the news, desperate for information, waiting and trying to be hopeful.

(TV reporter) ...in Southern Israel, but what is more concerning is these infiltrations of militants, and we are hearing harrowing reports from Israeli civilians who have been barricading themselves in their bomb shelters, in their safe rooms, going on the airwaves, calling, pleading, and begging for help.

I kept telling my brother, "Oh, it's okay, there just isn't, um... there just isn't service within the mamad."

I--I had to make myself believe that everything was okay.

(Liam) I was just scrolling on TikTok, and I came across this video of what looked to be Israelis on a tractor with Hamas terrorists around them, bringing them into Gaza.

(Alana) When I spotted her in the video, I had no doubt in my mind that it was her.

(shouting) Six of my family members were taken hostage by Hamas.

It was... ♪ It's really hard to put into words, um... In a way, I think I... I just tried to not think of the worst.

Tonight, dozens of Israelis who lived in these communities are still missing and believed to be kidnapped.

(Alana) My family is honestly-- I know people say this, but the warmest, most loving, funny, kind, generous.

-And who's this here?

-That's Amelia.

Right before was Danielle, um... They're babies, I mean, they're children.

Like, what can I say?

They're beautiful, and they're funny, and they're silly little kids.

(street noises) (Liam) I started to spot these posters around, um, to see that other people cared about them, without even me asking them to care about them, was... something that really helped me get through every day since October 7th.

It meant, like, the world to me, uh, to see that people cared.

(ambient music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (TV reporter) During the raid, some fighters also took Israelis as hostages.

Literally dragging people across the border with Gaza, including a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair.

(shouting, screaming) (tense music) ♪ (equipment whirring) (tape unrolling) (cell phone clicking) (faint traffic noises) We are here at 95th and Lex posting these.

(dramatic music) (tape stretching) ♪ The posters are popping up on street corners across New York and other cities around the world.

They show Israelis who have gone missing or are being held hostage.

(tv reporter 1) Posters of the hostages taken by the Hamas monsters are plastered just about everywhere.

(tv reporter 2) Little Raz might be from Israel, but her photo and story is reaching all corners of the city, along with hundreds of others who are now missing.

(mournful music) ♪ (Nina) I learned about the poster campaign fairly early on.

The hardest ones to see were the children, the Cunio twins, the Bibas babies, and the one that really hit home on a very personal level was Noya Dan.

Noya was autistic, and that was personal, because I have a son who's autistic.

I just remember thinking, "Oh, my God!"

And I had the same thought her mother apparently had, which was, "Thank God she was with her grandmother.

Thank God she was with someone who loved her," even in that worst of all possible circumstances.

(dark music) I went from the sort of "Oh, my God" horror to, "Okay, you can't sit there and curse the darkness.

What are you gonna do?"

♪ One of the things that I was so curious about, uh, seeing the posters go up all over the place, is why it was that people spontaneously were doing this.

♪ The effects of post-traumatic stress disorder are sometimes mitigated if, during a trauma, someone takes action.

And I think this is one of the reasons why people felt instinctively that they needed to do something.

♪ Even people who had never met those people who were taken hostages, they are all re-enacting that first action that family members and friends were doing, which was, "We are looking for our loved ones.

We're trying to find them.

Does anybody know where they are?"

♪ I really didn't do much in regards to hanging posters.

I--I barely had energy to eat or shower.

(sentimental music) On October 7th, after my mom woke me up that morning, I just saw, I couldn't even tell you how many people posting, "Come Home, Omer."

I don't think my body was ready or meant to feel that amount of pain or grief.

Omer had been taken hostage.

I grew up with Omer, so, even though we didn't talk frequently, the bond was still very prevalent.

(boy) So, what's your theme?

(Julia) I think we should do a pirate theme for "Arrgh" C.

(Omer) That's gonna be a "no" for me.

♪ (Julia laughs) (Julia) I was grieving, which was a very strange thing to kind of grieve a person that is still alive.

And I was so grateful for the people who'd put up posters.

It made me feel less alone.

'Cause in all the pictures, he's smiling, which is very on-brand for him.

♪ And then you realize why you're seeing his face, and it just kind of takes the floor out from under you every time.

(distant explosions) (news anchor) The skyline of Gaza shrouded in smoke as Israeli strikes pummel residential buildings... (explosion, shouting) The Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the humanitarian crisis continues.

(murmuring, faint birdsong) (woman) A thousand kidnapped Palestinians!

A thousand kidnapped Palestinians!

(solemn music) ♪ (Liam) When I was putting up these posters, it would spark a lot of conversation.

People cried to me and I cried to them on the middle of the street.

And then, also, negative comments from people.

This man came up to me and told me that if I really cared about, you know, children, I would be putting up posters of Palestinian children.

And then I said, "This is my cousin's daughter.

She is captive in Gaza.

She's a hostage."

Um, and he told me that she looks like a white colonizer.

♪ (overlapping chatter) ♪ -Stupid a---!

-What?

(Nina) Whole families and babies have been living in fetid tunnels underground, being malnourished, getting sick, living with untreated wounds.

You know what their crime was?

Being at home with their families.

It's a war crime.

If we don't protest war crimes, what on Earth do we protest?

Answer me that.

(woman) Answer me why 3,000 Palestinians have lost their lives.

(Nina) The civilian deaths in Gaza are a tragedy... -They're innocent!

-Are these the same... (Nina) No, no, no, hang on a second, stop!

Not all-- excuse me, ma'am... ♪ (Liam) I was putting the posters up in Washington Square Park, and as I'm walking there, I saw these two women walk past me and kind of give me a face.

Hey, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

-I'm tearing this down.

-You're taking down... -That's my cousin.

-Girl... -That is my cousin.

-Girl... (Liam) Do you want her to die?

Do you care about her?

Her life?

She's in the hands of terrorists right now.

Seeing it in... live, in real time, it's a feeling that I--I can't really describe, an anger that I've never even felt before in my life against another human being.

♪ (Julia) I remember the first time I had seen that posters had been ripped down.

I'd walked down into the Union Square subway station, and both walls when you enter were lined with all of the hostage posters, and the left wall was all torn down.

Omer's poster had been ripped in half, like, right down the center, um, and I--I started digging through the papers to try and find the other half.

At the time, I genuinely thought it was just some crazy person, some bigoted person.

I didn't realize it was the start of a much bigger thing.

(woman) What are you doing?

Why are you ripping it?

-This is disgrace!

Look!

-You are disgusting!

♪ (man) Why are you taking those down?

Uh... ♪ (she chuckles) (man) Why are you laughing?

That's not funny.

♪ (woman) Why are you ripping them down?

-Woo!

-That's what I'm talking about!

Yeah!

(man) Why are you ripping down posters?

(journalist) Karine, can I ask you, there's been on social media and frankly, on news broadcasts, uh, a lot of videos of individuals who have been tearing down signs, many of these taking place in New York City, of Israelis presently being held hostage in Gaza.

There have been some tense, um, confrontations that have taken place there.

Is the White House's view that these actions should be condemned, the pulling of-- the pulling down of them, or that that's a form of peaceful protest?

(Karine) Look, I... I've sort of, kind of seen the reporting here and there.

I think it was from last week, right?

(journalist) There have been, like, 30 million videos that have gone around... (Karine) No, I know; I hear you.

I hear you.

I'm just not going to... We're not going to-- I'm not going-- (journalist) Is that peaceful protest to pull that down, or should you not be doing it?

(Karine) I'm just not going to go into, uh, specifics on that particular thing.

(man) A colleague of mine at NYU, Jonathan Haidt, has been writing and speaking about the way an increased use in social media, particularly among the young, has reinforced a moral binary.

When you go on social media, you either see the viewpoints that reinforce your own viewpoint, or you see the most absurd version of the other side.

Any violence inflicted on the oppressed is a crime, and any violence inflicted against the oppressor is freedom fighting.

Seeing these faces is the ultimate challenge to that binary view.

(dark music) ♪ (Julia) I think a lot of younger people, my generation in particular, you know, we grew up on social media, and I--I don't like blaming Instagram for everything.

But, you know, I'm very-- I'm guilty of this, too.

If I don't like what someone's saying, I just unfollow them, and I don't have to see it anymore.

(woman) ♪ Into the trash you go ♪ Ceasefire now and free Palestine ♪ (man) What is your reasoning?

I want to hear it.

-What is your reasoning?

-Can you hear me out, then?

My whole reasoning is that my people have been getting slaughtered in Palestine for years--years.

I haven't seen a single poster about my people.

I haven't seen a picture of my friend's grandmother who got slaughtered.

I haven't seen a picture of his family that got kicked out of their house.

I haven't seen s--- for my people.

So, when I see s--- for this, I don't--I don't feel for it.

I don't f--- with it.

How would you feel if people were posting s--- about police when s--- was happening?

You know how that is, that's not fair.

(reporter) Israel is expanding its battle against Hamas with tanks on the ground and more strikes from the sky.

The death and destruction is widespread.

Buildings in the Gaza Strip obliterated into nothing but rubble.

Hospitals are flooded with Palestinian patients and forced to treat the injured outside.

Do you think that genocide against Palestinians -is justified?

-It's not genocide.

Actually-- (woman) They came into my people's country and they murdered us.

Have you heard about colonization?

Have you heard of that?

I don't think you have.

Go colonize somewhere else!

F--- Israel!

F--- you!

F--- your propaganda!

(man) Why are you taking those signs down?

Where are the Palestinians?

(man) So put your own sign up!

(man 2) Who took any Palestinians?

(woman) Do not put signs over our posters!

Your posters are propaganda!

(woman) What do you mean, they're propaganda?

They're using my life for propaganda.

(woman) They are not.

Let's put up-- let's put up the 3,000 kids that were killed in Gaza.

(man) You--you can do it!

(woman) Please stop ripping posters down.

These are innocent civilians in Israel.

F--- you, f--- Israel.

(man) Why did you put your mask on?

You're embarrassed?

You're ashamed of what you're doing?

(man 2) You're supporting genocide and ethnic cleansing.

♪ (Aaron) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been one of the most divisive political issues in the United States, on college campuses and elsewhere, and so, it wasn't surprising to see both that people were putting up these posters, and that others had a visceral reaction to that, uh, and were tearing them down.

The act of putting up a poster is an act of expressing a viewpoint.

Now, when someone else comes along and rips that poster down, that's really akin to a heckler's veto, right?

It's people deciding what others are able to see and what speech and views they're able to listen to.

(pensive music) ♪ (Elisha) I think that the hostage posters have a real presence that not a lot of objects do, that only a photograph can have.

♪ You see photographs of people staring out at you, and they're there.

♪ I remember the first time I saw a ripped poster.

Someone had really just slashed the face of Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, the Bedouin guard of Kibbutz Magen.

♪ I couldn't look away, at that point.

I decided to document it.

I had an old camera.

(shutter snaps) You'd see spray-painted hostage posters.

You'd see feces, occasionally, and this really disturbed me-- burned hostage posters.

I'd never considered how powerful an image on the street could be.

Not before the hostage posters.

♪ We just want to be seen.

I can find something very intellectual to say about it, but I'd really just rather say that we want to be seen.

♪ And they want to be seen.

(man) Hey, why are you taking those down?

I don't want the government to harm any civilian.

(man) So why are you-- but those are civilians.

-Those are civilians.

-They're civilians.

What about all the people-- all the children that are getting... (man) Those were civilians first.

(woman) One bad doesn't make another bad-- (man) Yeah.

Why--why are you taking them down?

(woman) You're doing something bad.

But this is perpetuating the narrative of the victimization of the Israelis, which is completely false.

-Those people are victims.

-That's false?

(Piers) Why would you rip down posters of hostages?

Because it is perpetuating a completely false narrative that the Israelis are the victims, of which I do not promote, uh, any violence towards any innocent human being, regardless of their background or beliefs.

And those people that have their pictures on those posters, I do not know them, and I do not wish anybody who is innocent any type of harm.

It is more of a symbolic gesture, because it is pathetic propaganda that they are putting into, uh, civilian areas that we are living in, and they're perpetuating this narrative to keep subconsciously-- Why don't you answer my questions?

Why you would rip down posters of people who've been taken hostage?

All due respect to anybody who is suffering, uh, the loss of people that they love, which many people around the world are currently suffering from, but there's always a spotlight on a specific demographic of people, because, apparently, just like George Orwell would say, "Some people are more equal than others."

(director/interviewer) I reached out to several people who took down the posters... -Hm.

-...but they declined to be interviewed.

I have prepared some answers based on their statements, so I would love for you to read some of them, and then respond, if you would like.

"In our last conversation, I begged my grandfather to stay safe.

The very next day, an Israeli bombing took his life.

I loved him so deeply and my heart is bleeding.

These posters that portray Israelis solely as victims are just about rallying more support for the Israeli government, not about advocating for their return.

As if this whole thing started on October 7th.

In Israel, these posters might pressure the government to make deals they wouldn't otherwise consider.

But here in the U.S., our role is mostly about deciding whether to send more military aid to Israel.

So, these posters aren't really about bringing the hostages back.

They're about pushing for more destruction."

♪ I actually think this is an interesting critique.

You know, what is... what is the U.S.

posture toward Israel, toward the Palestinians, toward military conflict in that part of the world?

What is the solution?

Are there solutions?

I mean, this could be the basis of an actual conversation.

But you can't have that conversation just by tearing down posters, or, frankly, just by putting up posters.

♪ (Liam) My cousin Moran told us, like, "Please try to go back to your lives."

♪ Before I went to work that week, that video of my cousin Danielle came out... ♪ ...which was... ♪ ...painful to see her look like that and to see her in that situation.

(Alana) I watched it over and over again, and I cried, and I said to myself, "Well, she's alive.

At least there's that.

It's proof of life."

Um... And then I said, "Of course they picked her."

Of course they chose my cousin.

She's strong and she has a voice, so I wasn't totally surprised, but there was a sense of relief for sure.

(Liam) We had a sign of life.

It was so scary though, and it was almost embarrassing that, like, the world was seeing my family in such a horrible, vulnerable situation, uh, at the mercy of terrorists.

(soft music) ♪ So, I had posters that were, like, right outside my apartment that I could see from my window.

And usually they were torn down within, you know, 12 to 24 hours.

So, I decided to go and get a little security camera to see who exactly was doing this every day.

♪ It was multiple people that were doing this, but one guy in particular, you could see in the footage that he had a knife on him.

♪ This wasn't, like, just someone that was walking by that decided in the moment to tear down these posters.

This person left their home, or their job, or whatever, with the mission of tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis.

♪ I put it on my social media, and immediately the video blows up, gets thousands of views.

Then there were people that were identifying the individual on the video too.

My intentions wasn't to cancel these people or dox these people.

It was just to show the world that-- what's happening to people like me.

(reporter) Dr.

Ahmed ElKoussa, a South Florida dentist, seen here in Brickell taking down posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.

There was outrage over this video, and Dr.

ElKoussa was swiftly fired from his job at CG Smile.

-You fired him right away.

-Right away, without hesitation.

(reporter) Now, the dentist giving his side to the story.

Unfortunately, my video of four seconds gotten taken way out of context, uh, as well as the way that my former employer had portrayed it.

A woman was filmed at an upscale shopping center removing posters of Israeli children who have been taken hostage.

She has been identified as a doctor named Zena Al-Adeeb, and she has now been fired.

One of the NYU students was caught ripping down posters of Israeli hostages, has been identified by her NYU peers as Hafiza Khalique.

So, do you guys think the school should expel them?

So, after I was filmed tearing down these posters outside of Tisch Hall, um, a student at NYU circulated the video on social media, um, and she was calling for us to be doxxed.

Uh, shortly after, celebrities, public figures, and Zionist platforms with millions of followers were sharing our information publicly.

Under the petition that was calling for me to be expelled, along with the other students, people said that they are pulling their donations if NYU does not take disciplinary measures against us.

So, it's clear that, even NYU admits it, that relevant stakeholders and people with wealth and power are the reason why I was suspended.

(man) Hey, look at that, taking all the stuff down.

Nice to meet you!

Now the whole world is gonna meet you.

Hi, hello!

-No, no, no, no, no.

-Don't worry about it.

(woman) Okay, you'll be all over the news.

-Don't worry about it.

-Going to be all over the news.

What is your name?

You're so proud of it.

What is your name?

What is your name?

Show your face!

These posters were of children who are abducted and--and kidnapped and taken by Hamas.

He--when I asked him, he said he didn't care.

He supports terror.

Please do not support this man.

(Aaron) When people disclose personal information about someone, when they disclose where they work in order to encourage others to get them fired for their speech, that creates an intimidating atmosphere where many people are gonna shy away from speaking publicly.

This is really a continuation of the phenomenon that's commonly referred to as "cancel culture," you know, which reliably creates a climate of fear and self-censorship.

When you know that the price of speaking out on these issues is as high as losing your livelihood, you may reasonably calculate that it's just not worth the cost.

(man) Why do you take them out?

(man) Why'd you tear that flier down?

(woman) Oh, I was just looking at it closer.

(man) Mm-hm.

♪ (reporter) The death toll in Gaza continues to rise.

The U.S.

is urging Israel to reduce civilian casualties.

All of this following a breakdown in talks to release war hostages.

(reporter) The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says the death toll inside Gaza now surpasses 15,000 Palestinians.

People were--are calling for a ceasefire.

Netanyahu has said that the ceasefire will not happen until all of the hostages are released.

At the same time, Hamas has implied that the hostages will not be released until there is a ceasefire.

So, already we can see that these groups, these parties are at loggerheads.

Al-Qassam Brigades has fired a large barrage of rockets from Gaza towards Tel Aviv, reportedly intercepted by the Iron Dome, and this is being described as one of the largest barrage of rockets on Tel Aviv since October the 7th.

The fact that those rockets are still being fired is showing that Hamas still is going strong, and they're trying, certainly, to send that message that nothing so far has been able to quash their capabilities.

(protestors) Free, Free, Free Palestine!

(reporter) Organizers of this rally called for people to flood Brooklyn for Gaza, and that's exactly what they did.

The massive group marched to the Barclays Center, then the Brooklyn Bridge, temporarily closing it to traffic to march across to Manhattan.

We're gathered here today to condemn the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people perpetrated by the Israeli government and funded with U.S.

taxpayer dollars.

And we will continue to protest, not just until the siege and blockade ends, not just until U.S.

military funding to Israel ends, but until Palestine is free.

Somebody that we love grew up in the West Bank, in Palestine.

Um, what's happening to them is not fair.

It just shows how corrupt our government is and what they're doing to these poor, innocent people who have never done anything to anybody.

I'm all in favor of peace, but you got to add "free the f--- hostages."

(protestors) Palestine will be free!

(woman) Free, Free Palestine!

(protestors) Free, Free Palestine!

(cheering) -We don't want no two states!

-We don't want no two states!

-We want all of it!

-We want all of it!

I think pressure works, and you should keep pushing until the dam breaks and never stop.

This is not enough, okay?

Only-- And--and once the ceasefire comes, an end to the occupation.

(protestors) Bring them home!

Bring them home!

Bring them home!

(cheering) My name is Alana Zeitchik, and I'm here to tell you about love.

I love my family.

And I promised I would scream to the ends of the earth for them.

For too many in the West, the suffering of hostage families like mine has become a footnote, collateral damage in service of some perceived higher universal truth.

For too many, it feels like to care about one family, to love one child, is to diminish the suffering of another.

But the simple human truth is that you don't have to choose.

You can abhor the suffering of Palestinian families and the suffering of Israeli families like mine.

(cheering, applause) (Linsey Davis) Do you think that in this space that we're in right now, there's room to have empathy for the Israelis who lost their lives?

I think right now, if you turn on any mainstream channel, you'll see the stories of Israelis on every screen you look to.

And so I think, for me, I will continue to use my platform to uplift the voices of Palestinians and the struggles they're going through.

And they are asking us and begging us to share their stories, and that's what I will continue to do.

(Linsey Davis) Do you have empathy for the Israeli victims?

(woman) I think whether or not my empathy goes to Israelis or to Palestinians is really not the question here.

What the question is, is will we call for an end to this genocide and will we call for a ceasefire?

(soft music) ♪ (man) Excuse me, why are you taking those off?

Why are you taking those off?

Because it's causing the conflict to be worse.

(man) No, it's not.

-It's war propaganda.

-Tell the world how you can't hold two thoughts in your head.

You can only care about some people, but because they're Jews, they don't deserve your sympathy.

I am not anti-Semite.

I am pro children living.

(man 2) You're not anti-Semite?

It's propaganda, because you're not gonna find them here, so I don't know why you put 'em up.

It's dishonest.

(man) It's dishonest that kids were kidnapped out of their beds?

No, man, that's not what I'm saying.

(man) So, what is dishonest about the kidnapping poster?

It was kidnapped, right?

It's propaganda to justify the murder of... (man) So, were kids not kidnapped out of their beds?

Oh, please.

The point of those posters, in and of itself, is not to be, like, "Look at all these children that are lost," okay?

The point of these posters, the real point of these posters, is so that someone goes and f--- tries to rip it off so they can f--- film it, and go, "Look, look at these scary Arabs, they hate it, they have no interest in Israeli lives."

Okay?

It is the next wave of, like, don't think about 3,000 murdered children with our tax dollars and our missiles, and instead talk about how--how--how horrifying what these guys are doing is.

♪ (Aaron) It may be in some cases that people are putting up posters with the intention of causing anger in others.

But that's all part of the debate, right?

I mean, that's--so that may be worthy of criticism.

People may say that, "Look, by doing this, you're not helping bridge the divide between the different sides of this conflict."

But the people doing it, at the same time, may argue that, "This is the way that I think is most effective in expressing my views, and I want to put these posters up where people who disagree with me will see them."

Now, maybe they're not doing that in the most productive way, but, again, that's all part of the debate that is allowed to happen in this country under the First Amendment.

(man) No, what are you doing?

Do you know where they are right now?

You have any idea where they are right now?

♪ (man) I'm not f--- Jewish.

He's not Jewish.

I don't know if he is or not.

It doesn't f--- matter.

This is f--- the U.S.A., it's New York City.

You don't have a f--- right to touch that s---.

It's a free country.

You can wave your Palestine flag or say death to the Jews, or America, or whatever you want, but we can put a f--- sign.

(distant siren wailing) ♪ (Nina) The posters helped to raise awareness to activate people here, sure, but at the end of the day, how that translates into lifesaving intervention, I'm not sure we're making that leap and that the postering is contributing to making that leap.

That's a hard thing to conclude, and I hadn't really thought about it that deeply until you asked the question.

♪ I just got tired of playing Whac-A-Mole with these sort of invisible enemies, as it were.

And I said, "I'm not doing it anymore," right?

The definition of insanity is you do the same thing over and over again and you expect to get a different result... ♪ ...which is sort of, in some ways, a metaphor for the whole, um, mess in the Middle East.

♪ (Elisha) We wouldn't be moved to put them up if they didn't work.

It's really effective messaging.

♪ I did it for us.

I did it because I thought that there's something healing about changing our environment.

There's something therapeutic about it, there's something empowering about it.

But it's nice to know that we're not just talking to ourselves.

No one would rip it down if they didn't care.

I don't think we can convince many people, but they clearly have some sort of power or we wouldn't be doing this, and I wouldn't have spent this much time doing what I'm doing... ♪ ...because they're powerful.

Just hours from now, we expect a pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, the first step toward an expected hostage release on Friday.

We don't yet know the names of who will be in that group.

And it goes without saying, it has been an agonizing wait for their loved ones.

♪ (Alana) My cousin Moran told me that Danielle and Sharon were on the list.

It didn't feel real, and I could not have any sense of relief until I saw them home.

The Red Cross says they are in their custody.

The Israeli military confirmed that they have been handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross and are making their way to Israel.

♪ (Alana) The first time they showed clips on the news of the Red Cross trucks coming through, I ran up to the TV.

I could see a glimpse of Danielle's hair from the side.

♪ (horn beeping) And I just started crying.

I just saw her, I knew it was her, and she was on her way home.

♪ And I will never forget the image of Sharon and the twins.

Sharon, and another woman, wearing these pink outfits, each of them holding one of the twins sleeping, flanked by terrorists wearing black, and, once again, you know, I... ♪ ...had a sigh of relief.

Um, couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

I--it was a second miracle.

♪ Everyone in the world was watching it as if it was, wow, this amazing release of Israeli hostages.

And for me, it was seeing people I love, um, return from hell.

(reporter) They'll be taken to a military airbase in Southern Israel, then on to an Israeli hospital and ultimately reunited with their families.

(Liam) This is our first time seeing them.

It's an indescribable feeling of relief.

♪ Fighting resumes in Gaza with no agreement to extend the seven-day ceasefire.

(Antony Blinken) It's also important to understand why the pause came to an end.

Uh, it came to an end because of Hamas.

We remain intensely focused on getting everyone home, getting hostages back.

There are still about 120 hostages remaining in Gaza.

One of them is 22-year-old Omer Neutra.

(protestors) Bring him home!

Bring him home!

(Orna Neutra) Our son Omer, he was born in New York City one month after 9/11.

And here we are 23 years later, and he's the victim of another vile terrorist attack.

Imagine waking up every morning praying that he, too, is still waking up every morning.

That he is strong and is surviving.

(cheering, applause) I think the first few days when I was thinking about Omer, I... I really was hoping that he was dead.

Of course, I wanted him to come home, um, but the thought of what he would have to live through before he got to that point... (distant horn blaring) But I feel really horrible saying that.

(soft, tense music) ♪ It's also hard to say if the person who's gonna come home is the person that I remember.

♪ I hope he still has his light at the end of all this, and his humor, but there's really no way of telling.

♪ My cousins are coping in very different ways.

They also have different experiences.

Danielle has come home with a sense of resolve and purpose.

She's become an amazing advocate for all the hostages.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, seal the deal now and bring them all back now!

♪ Sharon, on the other hand, is in a total state of depression.

How could you not be?

Not only has she experienced a traumatic, terrorizing kidnapping filled with smoke and gunshots and blood and death.

♪ Now she has to wait for her husband, and she knows what he's experiencing.

♪ The children ask about him all the time.

I was there, and they run around the house singing a song they made up about their father, you know, saying, "I want my dad, but he's still in Gaza."

That's not normal.

♪ (laughs) I think Hamas is a vicious enemy, and the hostages were the ultimate bargaining chip.

At the same time, what is devastating to me is the ways in which Bibi and his government have placed so little emphasis on the fate of the hostages.

They almost seem like a nuisance to him.

It feels like a hopeless place.

But, you know, as Jews, we're kind of cockeyed optimists, and the last thing we do is give up all hope.

♪ Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7th.

♪ (reporter) The IDF says it has killed or captured more than 14,000 Hamas combatants... (explosions) ...but Hamas continues to recruit, to regroup... ♪ ...to regenerate.

(explosion) Is this an unwinnable war, would you say?

This conflict will only end with a political solution.

It won't end with a military victory.

♪ (Julia) I just really hated seeing them, ripped.

I pretty much found one on every single lamp post, every mailbox.

♪ I wanted to take something that I knew was once beautiful and meaningful and restore the beauty of our community.

♪ Yeah, I just ended up creating a bunch of these paintings.

♪ One of my professors was like, "If Omer comes home and he were to see this, what would he think of it?

♪ You need to make it more hopeful, less angry."

♪ Trying to make my experience palatable for them felt like a total cop-out.

♪ There was--there was no hope.

There's-- Nothing about the situation would lead a normal person to be hopeful.

I think the posters did a really great job of showing who people are and the world we live in and who is really there for us.

I think these posters kind of threw a stone and the ripples woke us up.

(Alana) I think the kidnapped posters gave us something tangible and actionable.

It was able to provide a sense of belonging, a sense of feeling like you're doing something.

And at the same time, I think it illuminated something for us, through the tearing down of the posters we learned about this fracture in our society.

(shouting) (Aaron) Part of the problem with cancel culture is that it runs on this blinding moral and intellectual certainty, uh, where people increasingly view those on the other side, not as people who have good faith disagreements, but as bad people with evil motives.

And when you view someone that way, then it becomes easier to justify shutting them up.

Censorship and cancellation don't change people's minds.

They're not persuasive.

And what they actually can do is just cause resentment.

There's a quote attributed to Sigmund Freud that goes, "The first human to hurl an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization."

(horn blaring, siren wailing) (reporter) That escalating feud overseas, prompting both passion and protests right here in New York City.

Both countries, Israel and Palestine, have a strong representation right here in New York City, and those air strikes can be felt right here at home.

(indistinct chatter, shouting) (solemn music) (man) You're not gonna get close to my friend.

(man) He attacked me!

-You know, I am pro-Palestinian.

-Great!

-Then hold the f--- flag!

-I am!

I am!

-I want to do it freely.

-Hold the flag!

-I want to do it freely.

-They rape people!

They kidnap them!

They murder them!

-What are you standing for?

-You murder people!

-You're here, go to Gaza!

-Yeah, I murder people.

Yeah.

(man) A f--- white supremacist Klan rally!

(woman) White supremacist?

Did you see the color of my skin?

(man) Yeah, uh-huh, and how many Israelis...?

(woman) You calling me white supremacist?

(man) Yeah, you Zionist f--- c---!

Shut up, you Zionist, apartheid, genocidal c---!

(man) You piece of s---!

You ugly piece of s---!

Walk away, b---.

Walk away.

(man) F--- losers.

I wish we lived in a world... ♪ ...number one, where there wasn't a war to begin with, and we all lived in peace and harmony.

That would be nice, that would be lovely.

♪ I wish, at very least... ♪ ...we could share the poles.

They'd put up their images of their children.

We'd put up images of ours.

And it would be sad, and tragic, and angry, but we'd all share the public space.

I want to live in that world... ♪ ...where we can share the poles.

(somber music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (soft, tense music) ♪ ♪