Denying October 7
The start of a Holocaust denial-like movement
Largely lost in the deluge of ongoing media coverage of the war in Gaza is the genesis of a denial movement about the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel. The denialism ranges from those who merely downplay the day’s death toll or barbarism to conspiracies that put the blame on Israelis.
It is tempting to dismiss October 7 denialism as the province of a few fringe groups. For nearly forty years, I have studied and written about Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories. I initially thought it possible that October 7 might be different. The Hamas terrorists used Go Pro cameras and their victims’ cellphones to film rape, torture, mutilation, and murder. Those stomach wrenching videos were uploaded to the victims’ Facebook accounts and their family WhatsApp groups, as well as to Hamas’s social-media. There was no directive to keep things secret, as was the Nazi order for those who carried out the Final Solution. The perpetrators celebrated the atrocities of October 7.
