The Guardian review of last night's One Day in October on Channel 4:
This disturbing documentary about the attack on Be’eri kibbutz is full of troubling interviews and phone/CCTV footage. Sadly, it also demonises Gazans as either killers or looters.
I think they kind of demonised themselves. All that shooting and killing and looting.
If you want to understand why Hamas murdered civilians, though, One Day in October won’t help. Indeed, it does a good job of demonising Gazans, first as testosterone-crazed Hamas killers, later as shameless civilian looters, asset-stripping the kibbutz while bodies lay in the street and the terrified living hid.
Camera footage from a 4×4, time-stamped 8.01am, includes audio from hysterically excited unseen terrorists as they race to join the killing spree. “It’s time for the nation of Jihad! … I swear to God! … We’ll slaughter them! … I wanna livestream this! We’ve got to show the folks back home!” A comrade assures the speaker they already are: Hamas massacred Israelis for viewers in real time.
Despite such evident evil, I am reminded of Cy Endfield’s film Zulu, with its nameless hordes of African warriors pitted against British protagonists with whom we were encouraged to identify. TV and cinematic narratives often work as othering machines in this way. At its worst, One Day in October, if unwittingly, follows the same pattern.
But Zulu was a film. This was a documentary. This actually happened. No fake footage. No heroic Michael Caine or Stanley Baker. Just terrified Israelis, watching helplessly as their comrades and loved ones were slaughtered in cold blood – to much rejoicing from the Hamas brethren.
This Guardian review is a typical example of the liberal misconception that the worse Hamas atrocities become, so the more legitimate their grievances must be. As if there’s something wrong with sympathising with an Israeli child cowering in fear rather than the terrorists coming to kill her.
Update: article now "removed…pending review".
Mick Hartley 
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