Guest Post by Adam Mossoff

[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.]

On Day 3 (July 11) of the law professor mission to Israel, we had the opportunity to watch the 45-minute film of the Hamas atrocities on October 7 that was created primarily from the GoPro cameras worn by the Hamas soldiers, but also includes footage from security cameras and CCTV. During the attacks, the Hamas soldiers uploaded their GoPro videos to the internet and blasted them out on social media to hundreds of thousands of Israelis’ social media accounts on October 7. The IDF spokesperson unit spent two days taking thousands upon thousands of these videos down from the internet.

I will not describe or detail any of the film’s horrors, and so you can read this post knowing that you will not be ambushed with a nightmare that will haunt you for the rest of your days. I will say the film is horrific. In fact, it’s beyond horrific. But if one is to bear witness to evil so that one can better defend the good (Israel) and speak out against evil (genocidal antisemitism and supporters of this nihilism in the West), one must know the evil of which one speaks. Thus, I considered it important for me to see the film, but given the shocking and sickening content of this film, I don’t begrudge anyone not watching it.

Here’s some background context and general information about the film: The IDF created this film in November 2023 given worldwide denials of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Similar to the Holocaust denials that began in 1945 and continue to this day, the denial of the vile atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 began on October 8 and continue to this day. It’s not just denial of murders of children and babies and other war crimes as “Israeli propaganda.” There’s also the denial of the rape and sexual violence committed by Hamas soldiers on October 7, which has prompted Sheryl Sandberg to create her first documentary as her own act of bearing witness to October 7. It’s called, “Screams Before Silence,” and if you have not yet seen it, I recommend doing so (https://www.screamsbeforesilence.com/).

Given its content, the film is closely controlled by the IDF. I already knew this from an opportunity I had last November to see it, which I declined at the time. One can only see the film through an application, a special invitation, or to be invited to a showing for specific audiences, such as political leaders or media industry representatives who have been invited to watch it. We saw it last week given that we were in Israel as a fact-finding mission about October 7. Before we saw it, we had to sign a special agreement not to share any images nor specific details that could be traced back to specific victims. We were also prohibited from having any electronic devices in the room and we had to store our phones in special lockers outside the room.

We later learned that not even all of the IDF spokespeople have seen it, as it has a security clearance rating of “need to know.” It appears that the primary reason for this extreme restriction on the film is the observance of the religious rules in Judaism and social norms in Israel about respecting the dignity of the deceased, which I described in my last post about October 7 and how Hamas deliberately sought to violate these rules and norms through explicit acts of desecration and destruction of its victims on October 7. Among those of us on the mission who were speaking with the IDF spokespeople about this, we were of one mind in telling them that Israel would be best served by releasing the film without restrictions, like documentaries about the Holocaust like “Night and Fog” that contain Nazi films of pits filled with bodies, as well as other scenes of body parts or death. Israel is in an existential war on multiple fronts right now, and in such emergency conditions, regular rules or norms that apply during normal life should be relaxed to accommodate the exigent circumstances.

As I mentioned, I won’t describe anything I saw in the film, but I would still like to share a few general observations about it. First, the pure glee expressed by the Hamas soldiers. Throughout the film, the Hamas soldiers are constantly shouting expressions of joy and excitement in what they are doing to their victims. They are not torturing or murdering out of necessity, nor is this the work of soldiers who are merely defending territory from an invasion. It was very clear from the first few moments of the film that they took pleasure in what they did. They celebrated it – during and after October 7. Many of us have seen the videos shared on the internet of civilians in Gaza who rushed to the trucks or SUVs to take pictures and beat the dead bodies or living hostages, shouting with glee and celebration. The Hamas soldiers were equally effusive and jubilant about the ghastly atrocities they deliberately committed on October 7 – and they proudly broadcast this by creating and sharing their GoPro videos with the whole world.

Second, the film of the GoPro videos makes it very clear that Hamas is a theocratic authoritarian regime in Gaza, not merely a dictatorship or a freestanding terrorist organization like Hezbollah or the Houthis. The Hamas soldiers expressed their glee and joy by constantly proclaiming “Glory to God!” (“Allah Ackbar!).