MINNEAPOLIS — More than two months after Hamas carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history, a small group gathered Wednesday evening in a private Twin Cities home to view a compilation of video from Oct. 7 for the very first time.
The screening, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas in conjunction with the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest, lasted about 45 minutes and included clips from Hamas' own body cameras and cell phones, among other sources.
"You saw, in graphic detail, the bloodshed. The barbarity. A beheading. Evidence of rape, evidence of rape of women who were killed. The most awful things you could ever imagine," said Steve Hunegs, the executive director of the JCRC of Minnesota and the Dakotas. "You could just see in the room, and myself sitting next to my wife, all just holding on to things as hard as possible. We wanted to hold on to the humanity of the victims."
Michael Ciresi, a local attorney, said he wrestled with whether to attend the screening but ultimately decided it was too important to ignore.
"What I saw was horrific. It was inhuman," Ciresi said. "There was no military mission there. The only purpose was to go in to slaughter women, children and others."
The video from the Oct. 7 attack has not been released publicly or even made widely available in Israel. However, the Israeli government has shown the clips to members of Congress and in recent weeks has started authorizing private screenings across the U.S., including some in Miami, Boston and New York.
Jodi Rudoren, editor-in-chief of the Jewish news organization The Forward and the former Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times, watched the video at a screening in Manhattan last month. She said a number of harrowing scenes stuck with her, including the slaughter of a father in front of his children and the joy of an attacker "bragging about how many Jews he killed."
"Bearing witness is an incredibly important part of journalism, and so I thought it was just a responsibility," Rudoren said. "It didn't really seem optional to me."
Rudoren wrote a column in The Forward the next day about her impressions of the video. While not calling for a cease-fire, she used her column to advocate for "the side of humanity."
"What I actually wrote about it was, yes, we need to look at this horrific film, but you also have to look at the devastation that's happening in Gaza. It's our responsibility for my audience as American Jews to actually see both," Rudoren said. "What's most depressing to me is when people get rejectionist about what might happen to try to resolve the conflict, the underlying conflict, whether it be a two-state solution or something else. We can't avoid that conversation, because if we do, we're just going to be right back here again."
President Biden has pledged full support to Israel since Oct. 7 and has described the attack as the deadliest against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
However, this week he changed his tone somewhat on the war against Hamas in Gaza, saying that Israel may be "starting to lose [international] support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place." The president's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, is currently in Israel and reportedly asked "hard questions" of Israeli officials while discussing a desire to transition Israel's operations in Gaza to a "lower intensity."
"I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives," Biden said at an event on Thursday. "Not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful."
Yet Israel says Hamas still holds more than 100 hostages, and ever since Oct. 7, disinformation has spread online downplaying or questioning the attack.
"We're seeing it happen: October 7 denial," Steve Hunegs said after watching video of the attack on Wednesday. "Well, you look at the film, you can see with your own eyes. Not only do you see with your own eyes, you see the video that was taken by Hamas."
Michael Ciresi, the local attorney who attended the viewing, said he supports a two-state solution in the Middle East.
"If anybody watches [the video] they would immediately recognize what the truth is. I don't think that's going to convince some people of the broader issues, and I'm not suggesting that it should or will," he said. "But I think it gives a real insight into why you need to eliminate Hamas. I don't think Hamas speaks for the Palestinian people. I just can't believe that. And, I think the faster people recognize that, the faster we'll have peace in the Middle East."
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