LONDON – Jack the Ripper was murdered on these streets. The Victorian serial killer created terror in a poor community, which included many immigrant Jews who had fled pogroms. East London is now home to a mainly Bangladeshi community who share their streets with a growing wave of hipsters, There are many Palestinian flags up.It is, perhaps, an apt place to host the world’s first recreation of the Hamas tunnels which still house more than 130 Israeli hostages.
“The Voices from the Tunnels” idea may sound mawkish, but it is surprisingly powerful. Dreamed up just six weeks ago and built in a derelict building that once housed a garment factory by a team that includes a top film set designer (who does not want to be named), it is an important educational tool for those who want to know more about the hell of being a hostage.
“This is the first of its kind, an attempt to bring the real stories of the hostages to life and to tell these stories because we must remember that many people are still being held in these tunnels,” says Orit Eyal-Fibeesh, a London-based Israeli who, as the leader of the 7/10 Human Chain Project has been at the forefront of many of the initiatives in the UK to remind people about the hostages.
"We want to show... what the tunnels look like and feel like"
“We want to show how everything was premeditated by Hamas, what the tunnels look like and feel like. And even if we can’t imagine the terror, the hunger, and starvation that they are going through, we can give people a taste of it.”
Orit is determined to confront those who are indifferent or even disbelieving among the British establishment by what has happened and what is still happening. “There are people who don’t want to hear it, there is a disbelief about the whole thing or the extent of this ordeal,” she says. “While we have had many people already, only three heads of universities have confirmed they will come, even though we’ve invited them all. We need people, especially in academia, to educate themselves.”
The exhibition, which runs for just one week and is only for specially invited journalists, influencers, politicians, academics, and VIPs, is based on the testimonies of hostages who have been freed, returned home, and told their stories, as well as footage from Hamas.
The idea came from a mannequin maker called David who wanted people to try and picture what life must be like for the hostages. His lifeless figures stand in for real humans – some of whom have been released, many others who have not.
The exhibition starts with a deep staircase that leads into a damp hallway. On the right is a room with a pair of bloodied body bags; it is a startling introduction but, as we know, at least some of the hostages will not be returned alive. On the left is a room filled with children. Sat in front of a television screen we see a mannequin representing 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi.
“Eitan was held by himself for quite a long time and made to watch some of the horrific footage from October 7 over and over again, to the point where he came out of Gaza speaking Arabic fluently,” says Orit. “There are so many different types of torture that they are inflicting on these hostages. Of course, we know there are isolated incidents of children being taken hostage – usually, they are returned after a few days. But there has been nothing like this before. Children are kept in tunnels, never knowing whether it is even day or night.”
Further through the dark, dirty space is an area that shows how the October 7 massacre was carried out, with witness testimony being played on a television, another space is filled with Hamas terrorists, surrounded by weapons. “They knew exactly where they were going, they even knew the codes to some of the rooms in the kibbutzim,” says Orit.
Perhaps hardest of all to see is the area dedicated to the young women who are still there, some of whom are survivors of the mass rapes and executions perpetrated by Hamas.
Wherever you are in the space, you hear the cries of the terrorists: “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!”
Towards the end of one room is a room representing the older hostages. One of their sons, Noam Sagi, a British-Israeli whose 75-year-old mother, Ada, was released after 53 days, is standing among them to provide yet more witness testimony. Ada was kept by an Islamic Jihad lawyer and held with another Israeli woman in a child’s bedroom in a house where the windows had been completely covered so she never knew whether it was night or day.
“The exhibition is upsetting but amazing. I think this is as close as you can get on a visceral level to understand what it is like being a hostage in a tunnel,” says Noam. “You can’t even breathe properly, let alone all the other disorientating elements.
“I think it is important that people need to understand that this isn’t just about Israeli hostages. But if this is allowed, if people accept that this happening and say nothing, what will stop it happening everywhere? People need to see that.”