Opinion: Bearing Witness to a Modern-day Horror in Israel

Editor’s note: RoughDraft Atlanta Publisher Keith Pepper attended one of three local screenings so far of footage from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel, much of it shot via bodycam by the perpetrators themselves as they committed their acts of violence. The Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast U.S., which invited reporters and other civic leaders to the screenings, framed the viewing as an act of solidarity not just with Israel but with all victims of crimes againsts humanity: “Bearing witness to the crimes against humanity that have been committed is our shared responsibility,” Consul General Anat Sultan-Dadon wrote in the invitation. Below are Mr. Pepper’s reactions to a compilation he said revealed the brutality of the Hamas attacks and the importance of remembrance.

A few weeks ago, I had the responsibility to bear witness to the horrors of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. I was invited with a group of media and community leaders to watch 45 minutes of unedited bodycam, CCTV, and social media video presented by the Israeli consulate in Atlanta.

Sadly, not many people attended that first showing (although more went to a subsequent viewing), despite the fact that nearly every local media outlet, education leader, politician, clergy, etc., was invited. There were only about 30 people in the room. At first, I wasn’t sure what to write about my experience, but I can’t shake the feeling that, especially with the recent release of some of the hostages during a pause in fighting, the world is quickly moving on from Oct. 7, and that reporting what I saw and experienced is critical to helping people understand what happened on the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. 

Here are my observations: 

Joyfully celebrating their savagery, the footage included an audio recording of one of the terrorists calling his parents to brag about the 10 Jews he had killed “with my bare hands,” urging his father to look at WhatsApp for photos of the bodies. While some of the videos have previously been aired on TV news, I recoiled in shock at seeing a terrorist use a garden hoe to take swings at a dead Thai worker’s neck. 

Close-up images of burned bodies, Hamas’ nod to Hitler’s Final Solution, sent chills down my spine, only to be outdone by watching terrorists chase an underwear-clad father and his two sons into their safe room where they then tossed a grenade, killing the father in front of his sons, who were then heard crying “Abba’s [daddy] dead,” and “I wish I wasn’t alive,” as a terrorist calmly drank soda from the family’s refrigerator. 

We saw the dead bodies of children in Mickey Mouse pajamas and a teenager in a Tupac t-shirt. We heard intercepted audio from Hamas commanders instructing the terrorists to bring dead Jews back to Gaza so they could “play with the bodies.”

It’s hard for me to find words to describe the depravity with which the Hamas terrorists treated other humans. As I have said in other pieces, Israel is not perfect, and the current Prime Minister will be held responsible for disastrous intelligence and security failures, as he deserves. But, Israel’s defense forces are not immoral. It’s tragic to see the loss of innocent lives, and I hope that the operations in Gaza end quickly so that innocent Palestinians are able to escape the fighting that Israel is compelled to do to root out Hamas.  

Do not be fooled by social media propaganda: these Hamas terrorists did not flood into Israel to protest the government’s policies. They did not invade Israel to sit down and talk about peace with Israelis, the majority of whom probably supported a two-state solution that gives Palestinians a pathway to a brighter future. These terrorists came with a single goal: to torture, kill, and kidnap innocent Israelis.  

We must all bear witness to these atrocities and not be duped into thinking that Hamas is somehow good for Palestinians or that they are a viable partner for peace. 

Progressives who float from one social justice cause to the next have shown their blatant disregard for either historical context or Jews, perhaps both. I have never been so paranoid that I see antisemitism around every corner, but when people I consider to be otherwise educated about history show an utter lack of understanding of the story of the Jewish people and parrot Hamas talking points on their social media accounts, I find myself in a very unfamiliar and uncomfortable position.

We all must sit with discomfort as we process the events that started with a surprise attack on innocent Israelis on Oct. 7, and we must never forget the inhumanity with which Hamas brutalized both Jews and Palestinians alike, starting a war that continues to claim many precious lives and create fresh trauma that is sure to impact generations.