There can be no doubt about what happened on October 7. Absolutely none.
The Hamas atrocities that took place on that day have been well documented, not just by the victims, the Israeli security forces, the government, and various groups that have visited the sites of the attack to “bear witness,” but by Hamas terrorists themselves.
Sophisticated go-pro cameras worn by the monsters who infiltrated southern Israel recorded their heinous crimes in graphic detail. As they carried out their prolonged, brutal onslaught, they took pains to document as much of it as possible, planning to cause additional psychological terror to an already shocked, grieving nation.
No way to deny the horrors of October 7
The terrorist group even posted this horrific and disturbing footage on its website. Unlike the Nazis, who went to great lengths to conceal their crimes, Hamas boasted of them to the world, leaving no doubt about the brutality and scale of the attack and kidnappings that followed.
Footage of one young, bloodied woman being grabbed by the hair and forced into the back of a vehicle, and another, recently murdered, her semi-naked corpse splayed out on the back of a truck and driven through Gaza while spat on by onlookers, are just two sickening reels that spring to mind.
Further, Hamas videos of the captives, including one in which four teenage girls are lined up against a wall with their hands bound behind their backs, leave no doubt about the inhuman treatment meted out to them. The testimony of the released hostages also paints a very bleak picture regarding the ongoing plight of those who are still in captivity.
And yet, despite all the evidence, there’s a growing body of October 7 deniers.
According to The Washington Post, “A small but growing group denies the basic facts of the attacks. Some argue the ambush was staged by the Israeli military to justify an invasion of Gaza. Others say that some 240 hostages Hamas took into Gaza were actually kidnapped by Israel. Some contend the United States is behind the plot.”
Deniers come from all walks of life and different backgrounds. Not all are right-wing racist scumbags, weird crackpots with a warped worldview, or “lefty” anti-racist, woke peace lovers.
The Washington Post cites Mirela Monte as one example. This South Carolina real estate agent and self-described holistic healer detests violence and is horrified by war and human suffering. She was “appalled” when she first heard about the October 7 attack, but soon came round to the view that, “Secretly, Israel was behind the massacre.”
In short, Monte is but one of a growing number of conspiracy theorists who belong to a Telegram group called Uncensored Truths. “According to the forum, the news reports were wrong: Monte now argues the Oct. 7 attack was a ‘false flag’ staged by the Israelis – likely with help from the Americans – to justify genocide in Gaza. ‘Pure evil,’ she said. ‘Israel is like a mad dog off a leash.’”
Conspiracy theory is, of course, nothing new.
Some argue that it started with the Jews and the blood libel in the 12th century and has been a scourge in society ever since. Those who subscribe to this warped worldview tend not to believe anything that comes from an official source, including governments and mainstream media.
Instead, they will seek out an alternative reason for any significant event, such as 9/11, the moon landing, COVID-19, the supposed perils of vaccination, and latterly, October 7. Ignorance is another factor at play here, causing a pernicious spread of misinformation. Books, once heralded as the root of all knowledge, are no longer popular.
Instead, people turn to social media for their daily diet of information, much of which is at best biased and, at worst, just plain wrong.
Armed with incorrect, little, or no knowledge at all, the so-called TikTok generation, many of whom are looking for a “fashionable cause,” are easy prey. These credulous, shallow fools only see things in binary terms: good vs evil; black vs white; oppressor vs underdog.
For them, the West (Israel, the US, the UK, and so on) is the oppressor and therefore bad on every level. Hamas, on the other hand, represents the underdog, the oppressed Palestinian population. According to this twisted narrative, Israel can do no right, and Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group, can do no wrong.
For example, Israeli food innovation, rather than being embraced by all, is known in some circles as “vegan-washing.” Further, Israel’s diverse society, in which the LGBTQ+ community is welcomed – unlike in neighboring Arab countries where gay men and women are tortured and killed – is known as “pinkwashing.”
The same twisted narrative applies to October 7, although in that case, far greater mental gymnastics are called for. Without this, how can one argue that Hamas, whose brutality was so extreme that President Joe Biden compared ISIS favorably to it, is anything other than evil?
Some argue that such is the oppression, that Hamas and its followers have the absolute right to resist by any means. Subscribers to that view allow for the October 7 atrocities, but blame Israel for bringing them upon itself. How else could one argue that a group that tortures, murders, and brutally kidnaps innocent civilians, including elderly women and young children, is good?
For Hamas, these mindless morons are a godsend. Lacking the moral clarity to assimilate and disseminate proper information, these useful idiots happily parrot antisemitic slogans and chants, without having the first clue what they actually mean. “From the river to the sea,” is a prime example.
Across cities in Europe and the US, thousands, if not millions, have joined marches in support of Hamas and the Palestinian cause, parroting this mantra without knowing which river and which sea it refers to. When challenged on the point, the level of ignorance among demonstrators has been staggering.
Doubtless, many of those who support Hamas and the Palestinian cause do so because it’s fashionable – just as the anti-apartheid movement and CND were back in the day. This particular cause is most alarming, however, because it gives people an acceptable vehicle to express their antisemitism. Most demonstrators would argue that they’re not against Jews per se, just Israel because of what it’s doing to the “poor, innocent Palestinians.” For them, October 7 hardly registers because the atrocities, the extent of which they would in all likelihood deny, were perpetrated by the good guys against the bad guys: Hamas against Israelis/Jews.
One wonders whether Hamas, when planning the attack, anticipated that so many would subsequently turn on Israel and, by extension, support them to such an alarming degree.
Regardless, Hamas has harnessed this perverse situation to serve its own ends.
Recently, it published a 16-page report titled “Our Narrative” to “clarify” the background and dynamics of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, better known as the October 7 attack.
In it, Hamas brazenly asserted, “If there was any case of targeting civilians; it happened accidentally and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.” Other such lies and nonsense littered the pages of the document, making for a sickening and infuriating read by anyone with half a brain.
Nevertheless, in the current climate, there are many who, doubtless, will swallow it whole, not stopping to question a single dot or comma.
And Hamas knows this. Its foolish followers are encouraging it to spread its lies, thus leading everyone down a dark and dangerous path. Let’s hope they engage their brains before it’s too late.
The writer is a former lawyer from Manchester, England. She now lives in Israel where she works at The Jerusalem Post.