Haaretz editorial: Israelis Must Finally Confront What Israel Has Done in Gaza

Abraham isn’t the only one. Haaretz has also published important investigations on this subject. Were Israelis shocked? Was there an outcry? Did the military authorities announce they would re-examine their methods? No. The Israeli consensus largely maintains that Palestinians started the war on October 7 and therefore deserve it; that there are no innocents in Gaza, and therefore no such thing as collateral damage; and that in war, innocents die, and that’s just how it is.

The shock that Szor and Abraham dare “slander Israel Defense Forces soldiers,” or “air dirty laundry in public,” or “provide ammunition for antisemitism” – or a host of other objections voiced with varying degrees of aggression – reflects an astonishingly inconsistent local consciousness. They tried to air the dirty laundry at home, but met with indifference. And anyone who thought the world needed Szor and Abraham to know that the rampant killing in Gaza is unnecessary and immoral is also deluding themselves. Israel’s problem is not public relations, but reality.

By screening their film at the Venice Film Festival, Abraham and Szor are trying to force Israelis to confront what they already know: that there’s a black stain on the way Israel is conducting war in Gaza, to put it mildly.

The filmmakers are not a rubber stamp or a pro-Israel propaganda committee. They are loyal to their conscience and their chosen profession, and bravely go against the murky current of complicity and self-censorship. Instead of threatening their lives and slandering them, the Israeli public should watch the film and finally start discussing what we have done in Gaza.