In the aftermath of the
7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the film was the target of an online campaign calling for the cancellation of screenings on college campuses. The campaign primarily received support from people not affiliated with the universities in question. The online campaign extended also to some non-university venues with scheduled screenings. A spokesperson for the college said it would be rescheduled, and that screening the film at a later date "was always the plan". Hunter College then insisted on the addition of a rabbi as a moderator. Members of the audience were invited to write questions to the filmmakers on index cards and pass them to the moderator, but he submitted very few of them and instead asked his own questions. Some students complained about their questions being ignored, which led to booing of the moderator by audience members. The
University of Pennsylvania refused to allow a Jewish student group to screen the film on 28 November. The Penn chapter of the
American Association of University Professors (AAUP) condemned the university's action and the screening went ahead, facilitated by the university's Middle East Center. The board of directors of The Westdale, a community cinema and arts venue in
Hamilton, Ontario, canceled a screening of the film scheduled for 6 December. The Westdale's executive director said that the staff had received around a dozen emails, with almost identical wording, calling for the cancellation. The group that had organized the event argued that the theater was failing in its mission to encourage the use of art to explore differences. On 1 December, the board reversed its decision to cancel the screening, saying a review found "no credible evidence that the screening would cause harm to anyone in our community" and that "screening a film that deals with a controversial topic is core to [The Westdale's] mandate." On the day of the screening, the local news website
InTheHammer reported that the town's Jewish Film Festival had withdrawn from the Westdale "as a reprisal for the Westdale's decision to show
Israelism". In a
New York Times column,
Michelle Goldberg discussed what she sees as the threat to free speech in an ongoing "backlash to pro-Palestinian activism", writing, "The fact that a documentary by and about left-wing Jews is seen, on some campuses, as too insensitive to Israel to be shown publicly demonstrates what a confused moment this is for academic free speech." ==References==