Nova exhibit banner in London taken down over police’s fear of attacks

London police request organizers of event memorializing massacre put banner up only when it opens on Wednesday to avoid giving away location to potential protesters, attackers

Organizers of an upcoming London exhibition on Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre at the Nova music festival took down the exhibition’s main banner after a police request due to fear that the location could be targeted by terror attacks or extremist protests.

Police requested that the organizers only restore the large sign on the actual day the exhibition begins — which is Wednesday — to avoid revealing the location of the venue ahead of time, Hebrew media outlets reported.

The reports said police officials discussed several threat scenarios with the organizers and said forces would be placed in and near the venue area, including undercover cops, to protect them.

The steps came amid a wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic attacks targeting Jewish targets in the UK.

The Nova massacre saw Hamas-led terrorists invade from Gaza, kill over 360 participants of the rave near Re’im, and take dozens to the Strip as hostages. The Nova victims were among the 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage on the day.

In June 2024, anti-Israel protesters waved terror group flags and carried signs glorifying October 7 outside an exhibit on the massacre held in New York.

Britain has seen a surge in antisemitism against the country’s 290,000-strong Jewish community since the 2023 Hamas massacre that triggered the Gaza war, with a spate of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London in recent weeks and two Jewish men stabbed in April in what police are treating as a terrorist incident.

The British Jewish community has long accused authorities of not taking strong enough action, particularly in the wake of the deadly Yom Kippur terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester.

Some politicians and Jewish community leaders said the antisemitism has been fanned by extremist messages at pro-Palestinian protests.

Earlier this month, London police announced the creation of a special unit to protect Jews.