October 8
The deep polarization of the reaction to the Israel-Hamas war after Hamas’s horrifying attacks on October 7, 2023, was a big reason why I found myself leaving Twitter/X. I was watching people I respect and care about seemingly losing their own humanity towards others, and I felt like I was caught in the middle. A big part of that was people supporting Palestinians minimizing the escalation of antisemitism since October 7. In her documentary, Wendy Sachs (“Surge”) looks at the antisemitism that has increased in the days after Hamas’s attacks.
It is possible to condemn Hamas’s attacks and tactics while also being against the policies of the Israeli government and their treatment of the people in Gaza and the West Bank. (It’s also possible to do this while condemning the Biden administration’s inability to hold Israel to account in their conduct of the war, and their .) Violence and oppression against any people should be a universally-condemned truth of life, even if you disagree with those people on an ideological level. Sachs’s film does not discuss the devastation of Gaza on the part of the Israeli response to October 7, and that is by design. This isn’t about the full picture of the war, but a reaction to how the Free Palestine movement has been used to promote antisemitism, especially on college campuses.
“October 8” is a 100-minute film where we hear voices of predominantly Jewish women from all backgrounds whom have witnessed, first hand, the rise of anti-Jewish speech after October 7. I could have done without a lot of the more well-known interviewees like Debra Messing (a producer on the film) and Michael Rappaport. The most impactful voices are from the young men and women whom are students from campuses where the protests of the war and Israel were most prevalent. For me, it’s been important to listen to Jewish voices that could clearly explain why phrases like “Globalize the Infitada” and “From the River to the Sea” are seen as explicitly anti-Jewish. The truth is, the existence of the State of Israel is just a fact of life; to dissolve it now, to return to a pre-1948 Middle East would only prolong the violence and hatred in the future, which isn’t to say I have an idea of what peace would look like myself- and even if I did, my voice isn’t one of importance on the conflict- but it seems like a pretty clear fact of the situation, just like saying the Palestinian people should have a state of their own, where they don’t have to live under Israeli governance.
This is definitely a case where a review is less about the film itself, and more about the real-life politics of its subject. So allow me to use this paragraph to say that “October 8,” despite being largely one-sided, has a single side that it needs to illuminate. It effectively shows how social media has been weaponized to promote political extremism and hate, and how there is credence to the “horseshoe effect” of politics, where the distance between the far left and far right is not as far as one might think. (I don’t think they exclusively share JUST antisemitism in common, as the film says, but it is a common denominator.) That said, I think the film uses cinematic choices in editing choices and music to get a visceral response out of the viewer that are antithetical to the empathy it’s asking us to have for its subjects. A film structured in this way is always more impactful the more subtle it is, and it almost feels like Sachs is using the sort of blunt-force messaging they’re condemning the pro-Palestinian movement for. It’s self-defeating, in that respect.
Ultimately, however, it’s hard to approach with Israel-Palestine subject with subtlety. But it shouldn’t be that difficulty to approach the victims of the conflict on both sides with empathy. The film highlights TikTok in terms of social media polarization, but the truth is all social media platforms benefit from more extremism, less nuance and understanding, regardless of the subject. Why should this one be any different? One thing is true for sure- we need to be the catalysts of change in how we interact with one another, or we’ll simply be contributing to our society’s downfall fall.
