[Note from DB: On our lawprof trip to Israel, we were offered the opportunity to watch a compilation of Hamas atrocities on October 7th. I declined. I saw just a bit of this footage back in October, and it was sufficiently searing that I did not want to revisit the experience, and I certainly needed no persuading that Hamas is a theocratic death cult that should be erased from the earth. But my colleague Adam Mossoff did watch the footage, and here is his report.]Â
On Day 3 (July 11) of the regulation professor mission to Israel, we had the chance to look at the 45-minute movie of the Hamas atrocities on October 7 that was created primarily from the GoPro cameras worn by the Hamas troopers, but additionally consists of footage from safety cameras and CCTV. In the course of the assaults, the Hamas troopers uploaded their GoPro movies to the web and blasted them out on social media to tons of of 1000’s of Israelis’ social media accounts on October 7. The IDF spokesperson unit spent two days taking 1000’s upon 1000’s of those movies down from the web.
I can’t describe or element any of the movie’s horrors, and so you possibly can learn this submit figuring out that you’ll not be ambushed with a nightmare that may hang-out you for the remainder of your days. I’ll say the movie is horrific. In actual fact, it is past horrific. But when one is to bear witness to evil in order that one can higher defend the nice (Israel) and converse out towards evil (genocidal antisemitism and supporters of this nihilism within the West), one should know the evil of which one speaks. Thus, I thought-about it necessary for me to see the movie, however given the stunning and sickening content material of this movie, I do not begrudge anybody not watching it.
This is some background context and normal details about the movie: The IDF created this movie in November 2023 given worldwide denials of the atrocities dedicated by Hamas on October 7. Much like the Holocaust denials that started in 1945 and proceed to this present day, the denial of the vile atrocities dedicated by Hamas on October 7 started on October 8 and proceed to this present day. It isn’t simply denial of murders of youngsters and infants and different warfare crimes as “Israeli propaganda.” There’s additionally the denial of the rape and sexual violence dedicated by Hamas troopers on October 7, which has prompted Sheryl Sandberg to create her first documentary as her personal act of bearing witness to October 7. It is known as, “Screams Earlier than Silence,” and when you have not but seen it, I like to recommend doing so (https://www.screamsbeforesilence.com/).
Given its content material, the movie is carefully managed by the IDF. I already knew this from a possibility I had final November to see it, which I declined on the time. One can solely see the movie by an utility, a particular invitation, or to be invited to a displaying for particular audiences, resembling political leaders or media business representatives who’ve been invited to look at it. We noticed it final week on condition that we have been in Israel as a fact-finding mission about October 7. Earlier than we noticed it, we needed to signal a particular settlement to not share any photos nor particular particulars that could possibly be traced again to particular victims. We have been additionally prohibited from having any digital gadgets within the room and we needed to retailer our telephones in particular lockers outdoors the room.
We later discovered that not even the entire IDF spokespeople have seen it, because it has a safety clearance ranking of “must know.” It seems that the first purpose for this excessive restriction on the movie is the observance of the spiritual guidelines in Judaism and social norms in Israel about respecting the dignity of the deceased, which I described in my final submit about October 7 and the way Hamas intentionally sought to violate these guidelines and norms by express acts of desecration and destruction of its victims on October 7. Amongst these of us on the mission who have been talking with the IDF spokespeople about this, we have been of 1 thoughts in telling them that Israel can be greatest served by releasing the movie with out restrictions, like documentaries concerning the Holocaust like “Evening and Fog” that comprise Nazi movies of pits stuffed with our bodies, in addition to different scenes of physique elements or dying. Israel is in an existential warfare on a number of fronts proper now, and in such emergency circumstances, common guidelines or norms that apply throughout regular life ought to be relaxed to accommodate the exigent circumstances.
As I discussed, I will not describe something I noticed within the movie, however I’d nonetheless wish to share a number of normal observations about it. First, the pure glee expressed by the Hamas troopers. All through the movie, the Hamas troopers are always shouting expressions of pleasure and pleasure in what they’re doing to their victims. They don’t seem to be torturing or murdering out of necessity, neither is this the work of troopers who’re merely defending territory from an invasion. It was very clear from the primary few moments of the movie that they took pleasure in what they did. They celebrated it – throughout and after October 7. Many people have seen the movies shared on the web of civilians in Gaza who rushed to the vans or SUVs to take photos and beat the lifeless our bodies or dwelling hostages, shouting with glee and celebration. The Hamas troopers have been equally effusive and jubilant concerning the ghastly atrocities they intentionally dedicated on October 7 – and so they proudly broadcast this by creating and sharing their GoPro movies with the entire world.
Second, the movie of the GoPro movies makes it very clear that Hamas is a theocratic authoritarian regime in Gaza, not merely a dictatorship or a freestanding terrorist group like Hezbollah or the Houthis. The Hamas troopers expressed their glee and pleasure by always proclaiming “Glory to God!” (“Allah Ackbar!). One hears this extra occasions than I may depend, though I used to be frozen by the horrors of what I used to be witnessing and so I used to be not able to counting on the time. Hamas is an authoritarian Islamic theocracy that guidelines over Gaza (it was elected into energy when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2006 after which it took). Thus, Hamas is like Iran, the Taliban (Afghanistan), the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 2011-2013, and ISIS in Syria and Iraq from 2014-2019. There have been non-ideological dictatorships within the Center East, resembling Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, however that’s not Hamas.
That is necessary to know and absolutely respect: October 7 was not about any grievances over land or alleged abuses by the Israeli authorities over the Palestinians. Hamas seeks the genocidal destruction of each Jews and Israel, simply as its monetary and army Iran, which is reported to have had a direct position within the planning and approval of the October 7 atrocities. This explains greater than something the atrocities and warfare crimes of October 7. Hamas is devoted to the genocidal evil of the dying of all Jews and the destruction of all of Israel.
Third, and final, the Palestinian tradition considers canine to be disgusting filth, and that is conveyed within the movie as properly. I had beforehand learn articles and seen a number of movies about how the various stray canine in Gaza are considered as nuisances and pests, and that Palestinians frequently kill or torture these canine. They kill or torture canine as a result of they view canine as not even befitting any respect for all times. One doesn’t must be a “canine individual” like I’m to suppose that is deeply disturbing. There may be legitimate purpose for the well-known dictum that canine are “man’s greatest buddy.”
I say this as a result of the Palestinian’s horrible view of canine is on full show within the movie of the GoPro movies made by the Hamas troopers. The commonest insult one hears within the movie, it’s a chorus that’s second solely to the shouts of “Allah Ackbar,” is the one which the Hamas troopers always scream on the Jews they’re capturing and slaughtering: “You’re canine!”
It’s a well-known reality in human historical past that individuals who commit mass homicide explicitly dehumanize the folks they’re killing. The Nazis did this, for instance, by labeling Jews as rats, vermin, and as a subspecies separate from Aryan people. Hamas now does it by labeling Jews as canine, which can appear unusual to somebody within the West who’s unaware of the rat-like standing that canine apparently have in Palestinian tradition. (One other instance of that is discovered on this video (https://x.com/LizaRosen0000/standing/1811955884966203632…) of an interview with an previous Palestinian lady who says, “Jews are canine.”)
For all these causes, the movie is very horrific and searing psychologically and emotionally. Hamas despatched 3000 troopers to invade Israel for the aim of homicide, torture, rape, and kidnapping of harmless folks (about 1,450 infants, youngsters, and adults). This reality is dangerous sufficient by itself, however these troopers didn’t commit their warfare crimes dispassionately or out of a way of army obligation. They dedicated their atrocities willingly, fortunately, and with effusive expressions of glory. The movie is a window right into a human capability for evil that I knew solely within the summary from my historic examine of the Holocaust or the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge, however, primarily based on what I do know, the Nazi or Khmer Rouge troopers didn’t experience and enthusiastically rejoice their murders and atrocities. The Hamas troopers did.
When the movie concluded, I used to be in psychological shock. I had been and continued to cry. My fingers have been shaking, and I felt nearly bodily numb. I additionally felt a way of detachment from my physique and my environment. I nonetheless vividly bear in mind holding my proper hand out flat in entrance of me and watching it tremble and shake, as if I had simply over-exerted myself in a exercise on the gymnasium, regardless of my having sat nonetheless in an air-conditioned room for the previous hour. After a break, we met with IDF attorneys after which continued the mission with lunch and extra conferences with attorneys from NGOs and others, nevertheless it took me a number of hours to get better from the shock.
This was all per week in the past, and the shock has lengthy since worn off, however that movie will probably be with me for the remainder of my life. I hope that I can now use my writing and talking abilities as a professor and advocate to assist in my very own means by talking reality to the vicious lies and propaganda of the pro-Hamas activists within the U.S. and the West. Let nobody be mistaken what the slogans “from the river to the ocean” and “intifada” really imply, and what the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah that are actually frequently flown on the protests within the U.S. and Europe imply. These all characterize a pure and unadulterated nihilism that many people within the West have a tough time absolutely understanding. This isn’t simply antisemitism, and won’t finish with Jews or Israel. I hope the U.S. wakes as much as this reality earlier than its persevering with appeasement of Iran ends in Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon, as a result of after watching the movie of the October 7 atrocities, I believe I do know what is going to occur when it does.
