‘Come in for one minute’: Israeli survivor’s appeal to doubters as 7 October exhibition opens in London

Two police vans waited expectantly near the front entrance. Officers patrolled the pavements while suited security men with ear pieces stood stern-faced, casting suspicious looks at those approaching. The location in east London had not been disclosed until that morning but no chances were being taken. It was not for a visiting dignitary or even an embassy of a country in conflict that all this was deemed necessary but the Nova exhibition, a commemoration of the 378 people massacred at a music festival on 7 October along with the 44 taken as hostages and the 19 of those who died in Hamas captivity. When the exhibition had travelled to New York, hundreds of people had turned up in Lower Manhattan to protest against the conduct of Israel since the 7 October attack, some of whom claimed the show was a piece of political propaganda. Elkana Bohbot, just after his release in October 2025. He spent 738 days as a hostage in Gaza of which 690 were in a tunnel. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters Elkana Bohbot, a co-organiser of the 2023 music festival, who spent 738 days as a hostage in Gaza of which 690 were in a tunnel, said he had only one request to those who might turn up to demonstrate in London: “Come in for one minute. Not an hour but just one minute. Come inside. That’s it.” London is the 10th city to host the immersive reminder of this part of the worst atrocity committed against Jews since the Holocaust. …