LAST Tuesday, the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, a commemorative event was held at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster. The event was organised by Our Fight UK and the British Friends of Israel. There was minimal advance publicity to avoid the inevitable threats and hostility from the usual anti-Israel protesters – such are the precautions needed in the UK simply to speak about the Hamas atrocities. Despite this, largely through direct invitations and word-of-mouth recommendations, the venue was completely full with some 900 attendees. Police and security outside the building ensured that the event was not disrupted.
Between 6pm and 7pm there was a drinks reception in the Exhibition Hall where a powerful series of posters and videos chronicled the events on the day of the massacre.
Among the people I saw in the Hall were politicians Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and Howard Cox; social media figures Mahyar Tousi and Tonia Buxton; political commentators and journalists Allison Pearson, Emily Schrader and Sophie Corcoran; and many others.
The formal proceedings in the packed main auditorium began at 7pm, hosted by Mark Birbeck of Our Fight UK.
Mark Birbeck
A full video of the proceedings can be seen here, so I will just summarise a few highlights.
First up was Israeli journalist Emily Schrader. She spoke about her personal experience of October 7, from the start of the day through to visiting the worst affected Kibbutzim shortly after. She showed her own photographs and videos.
Mark interviews Emily Schrader
British Friends of Israel director Jan Macvarish then interviewed Hila Dee and Elliot Sorene. Hila recounted how her daughter survived the Nova festival massacre while many of her friends did not. Elliot, a surgeon originally from Britain, spoke about his son’s narrow escape from Nova and dealing with the aftermath.
Jan Macvarish interviews Hila Dee and Elliot Sorene
There were then some video testimonies. Especially moving was that of Eran Peretz, whose son Ido was murdered at Nova.
The final speaker was journalist and co-founder of British Friends of Israel Allison Pearson. She spoke about her interview in Israel with Sheri Mendes, one of the women tasked with preparing the bodies of the hundreds of women murdered on October 7. She described how most of the bodies showed clear evidence of sexual abuse and sadistic mutilation as well as the systematic destruction of faces. When asked how many of the victims’ bodies were in a state that would enable them to be shown to their families she said: ‘Not one.’
Mark with Allison Pearson
There was plenty of time afterwards to meet the speakers and friends over a drink, but the focus for most was on the incredibly detailed and sobering poster exhibition. I was hoping to find a web link to the posters, but there does not appear to be one. However, for those interested in finding similar material I recommend novaexhibition.com and october7files.com
This was a well-organised and impressive event, but despite its importance, it appears that not a single mainstream news outlet reported on it. I asked Grok the following:
‘On 7 October 2025 Our Fight UK and British Friends of Israel hosted a major commemorative event on the second anniversary of the 7 October massacre. Did any mainstream media report on the event?’
Here is the response:
‘No, there is no evidence in available sources that mainstream UK media (e.g., BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times) reported on a specific major commemorative event hosted by Our Fight UK and British Friends of Israel on 7 October 2025 to mark the second anniversary of the 7 October 2023 massacre. Searches across these outlets and broader web queries yielded no mentions of such an event tied to these organisations on that date.’
The shame is that most of the people who attended would already have been aware of the horrors of October 7. The challenge for organisations such as Our Fight UK and British Friends of Israel is to get this information to the broader British public whose perceptions of October 7 have been poisoned by the relentless anti-Israel propaganda of the mainstream media.
