Iran’s Attack on Israel
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Sonia Jean-Baptiste, the director of the Chelsea Film Festival in NY, and her daughter are fierce advocates for Israel.
After the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel – and the subsequent kidnapping of more than 230 Israelis – two artists in New York City, Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, started putting up posters of those who were kidnapped. The campaign spread worldwide to raise awareness about the hostages and urge governments to demand and secure their release.
Sadly, videos soon emerged of pro-Hamas protestors angrily ripping down the posters in different cities around the globe, including in New York City.
Sonia Jean-Baptiste, a French-Caribbean Jew from Martinique who raised in Paris from the age of six, wasn’t going to tolerate that. Armed with posters and strong tape, she took to the streets of New York City with her daughter Ingrid and passionately put posters back up. Ingrid filmed her and posted it to Instagram in late October, and the video spread like wildfire, amassing over 27,000 likes, more than 4,000 comments, and tons of reposts.
“It came naturally for me to do that,” said Sonia, who runs the Chelsea Film Festival. “We didn’t hesitate for one second on whether or not we should.”
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On October 15, just eight days after the massacre, Sonia and Ingrid held a panel for their film festival featuring Israeli filmmakers. One of the guests was Israeli director Gal Genossar, who flew into New York the week prior, on October 7, to talk about his short film about the Holocaust, “The Monopol.”
“He heard the sirens in the airport in Tel Aviv, but it wasn’t until he landed in the U.S. that he found out Israel was at war,” said Ingrid.
Genossar stayed for a few days to promote his film, and then flew home to fight.
“He was just with us in a fancy outfit, and now he’s in the IDF, fighting for Israel,” Ingrid said.
Around the same time, the festival also hosted the artists who created the kidnapping campaign, Nitzan and Dede.
“They had a bunch of spare printed posters and they had also the tape and they were giving it out,” said Ingrid. “It was our duty to post it. It was the right thing to do.”
As Sonia taped up the posters on a pole in Manhattan, Ingrid filmed her. In the video, Sonia is clearly emotional; Ingrid clarified what was happening.
“A guy with a keffiyeh scarf came right behind her at the same time,” said Ingrid. “You can see Sonia was upset in the video. She was very firm in putting up the posters, and this guy started filming us. We didn’t know what was happening. He took pictures of Sonia and recorded her and then left. He didn’t say anything. The police were right there.”
A few days later, Ingrid put the video on her stories – which disappear after 24 hours – and was then asked by a follower to post it, where it would stay on her page. From there, it picked up massive steam.
“I never thought this would go viral,” Ingrid said.
Aside from the intimidating man in the keffiyeh, the response from Sonia and Ingrid’s poster campaign has been mostly positive.
“When we were putting on the posters the week prior and even that day, a lot of people were supporting us,” Ingrid said. “They were driving and they stopped and said, ‘Thank you so much.’ We do see the posters have been ripped down where we put them, but people don’t do it in front of us.”
Both mother and daughter, who have friends and family in Israel, are appalled by people ripping down the posters.
“It’s disgusting,” Sonia said. “There are no words for it.”
Ingrid said, “It’s inhumane. If it was their family, I don’t think they’d do it. They don’t rip down posters of cats and dogs that are missing. But they do for human beings.”
While Ingrid and Sonia have not felt targeted as Jews in New York City, Sonia is more fearful when she goes back home to France.
“It’s a little scary there,” she said. “Here, I feel there is more security. We can feel the antisemitism much more in France.”
Ingrid, who has 40,000 followers on Instagram, has been vocally supporting her people and the land of Israel. She and her mother went to the Washington, D.C. rally and posted a video with the caption, “A day to remember. 300K brave women, men and children came together to say NEVER AGAIN! We MUST bring them home! 🇮🇱🇺🇸” Sonia commented below her, ‘Stand up with Israel! If not NOW, When? 💙🇮🇱’”
While the two believe that the poster campaign is effective, they advocate for spreading it online as well.
“If it’s digital, people can’t take it down,” Ingrid said. “Send it out on newsletters and social media. We can get pins made that have the faces of the abducted people on it too. We would love to be more involved. We do what we can, but we have to do more.”
Sonia echoed this. “We want to support our people,” she said. “We have to, it’s just human. Everybody can do it. If you’re a human, you have to do it.”
Despite the fact that people are ripping down posters and pro-Hamas rallies and antisemitism are spreading, Ingrid has an uplifting message for the world.
“Keep having hope and do not be scared,” she said. “Being scared is going to slow us down. Keep believing that there will be a positive outcome for Israel. We are going to win this one. There is no other choice.”
You should be blessed! Alot of Jews left and are leaving to Israel from Europe and the Jews in US are planning to leave as well. Europe destroyed the Jewish people and now the Muslims are destroying Europe. Is U.S. next? The Europeans did not learn from history. Spain expelled the Jews
in 1492. Since then Spain never recovered financially. For those Jew haters get rid of your computers, technology, cell phones, waze, medicines, vaccines discovered by Jews. We will see how far you will get. We Jews are productive people and the Muslims are bent on destruction and are ignorant of history. By the way, for those who are supportive of Hamas, did you ever see a Jew beating up another person in the street?
Bravo! Steven Finer