Why didn’t the BBC air this 7 October documentary earlier?

We all know what happened on 7th October 2023. But those of us who have watched the Israeli government’s compilation of footage from the day, as well as other videos sourced from the darker corners of the internet, know more than most the extent of atrocities carried out by the Palestinian terrorists who invaded through the Gaza border.

Now everyone can get a sense of what truly happened, thanks to Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again, the film by Yariv Mozer which screened last night on the BBC and is available on iPlayer and Paramount+ in the US. The documentary delivers a devastating account of one part of that dreadful day’s events: the Nova party massacre, where a festival built on love, music and community became the setting for unspeakable horrors.

A searing testament to the brutality of that day, the film urges us to bear witness to events that were carefully documented by both the victims and the perpetrators, in videos which until now were scarcely shown to a wider audience. Through survivor interviews and real-time footage filmed by both the victims and the attackers, We Will Dance Again confronts us with a chilling narrative of joy shattered by terror and barbarity. CCTV and dash-cam footage, coupled with phone videos and terrorist go-pro sequences give a real-life Blair Witch Project vibe to the film, but here we actually get to see the face of evil up close and personal, thanks to the terrorists’ own vanity and pride: they filmed themselves at every stage to show their sick would-be compatriots back home in Gaza exactly the terrors they wrought on innocents. They wanted us to see this, and finally we can.

The early scenes carry a sense of dramatic irony worthy of a Greek drama or a Shakespeare tragedy. The first-person footage filmed by young Israelis excited to start their weekend nature-party near the Gaza border shows carefree festival-goers arriving that fateful Friday evening, ready to turn on, tune in, drop out. They are blissfully unaware of their looming fate, though of course we are not. They’re just ordinary youngsters, but we already know their faces all too well from the horrors that would shortly burn their likenesses into our minds. We see Hersh Goldberg-Polin, smiling with his friends, and beautiful Shani Louk, dancing without a care in the world. As viewers, we know what those sweet young faces did not: their celebration will soon give way to violence. Both will be murdered, one that very day; the other after losing half an arm in a terrorist grenade attack and following months of imprisonment in Gaza.

By way of contrast, the film presents us with footage filmed by the Palestinian terrorists themselves. Their callous, bloodthirsty advance into Israel is made all the more chilling by their excitement and celebration, as they break in and start to shoot. Unbridled joy and religious fervour fuel them on their savage journey through southern Israel, killing anyone who crosses their path. They beat and kill Jews and Arabs alike, smiling and filming as they go.

As young people do these days, the party-goers filmed the unfolding horrors, some to leave a record for their loved-ones, some to record what they realise is a grim piece of history in the making. Their ancestors were killed in the Holocaust only for future antisemites to deny it ever happened, but this time they all have phones with cameras to document the slaughter. Though secular, many of them can be heard declaring ‘Shema Yisrael!‘ a prayer traditionally uttered when one is facing death. Their formula, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One’ is mirrored by the Palestinian attackers’ cries of Allahu Akbar – ‘God is great!’ – in the Palestinians’ own home-movies, as they rampage through the festival, slaughtering the innocent.

While these Hebrew and Arabic phrases may not seem so different in meaning – both praising God – the intentions of those two groups at that very same moment invoking their guardian and maker could not have been further apart. Where one group clings desperately to life, the other yearns for murder and destruction. We are left in no doubt about the cause for which they killed: ‘Even if 1,000 of us die for Islam, even if 2,000 of us die for Islam, the time of the Jihad nation has arrived,’ they sing with glee. No amount of commentary could better demonstrate the profound cultural and religious divide, where one side worships life and the other revels in death.

There is no sanitisation here, no softening of the terror. The film vividly brings to life the sheer panic and horror of those trying to survive. It captures the festival-goers sprinting through open fields, trying desperately to outrun bullets. As one survivor grimly notes, it was like something from Squid Games. The viewer is thrust into this panic, and it is as uncomfortable as it is essential viewing. Both groups were intoxicated: the Israelis high on music, love, and sometimes MDMA, the Palestinian terrorists rolling on Allah, killing, and maybe also Captagon, the jihadi drug of choice. For those who have not seen footage like this before, it is a shocking confrontation with the reality of Palestinian Islamic terror. It is almost unbearable, yet it must be seen. Please, watch it.

The film is restrained in its direction, letting the raw footage and detailed interviews speak for themselves. Subtle techniques – a well-timed jump cut to a wider shot revealing a survivor’s life-changing injuries, for example – are deployed with a light touch, never feeling manipulative or cruel. Likewise, the gravity of what we are witnessing is shown, not said, without any need for the gloss of overproduction. No matter that the the documentary’s Israeli writer and director Yariv Mozer has said that the broadcast on BBC 2 was conditional on him agreeing with the corporation not to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation: the survivors have no such filter and call them that again and again. The footage makes it clear what these beastly people are, without the need for condescending executives to grant their approval.

At Tuesday evening’s advanced screening, the BBC’s Chief Content Officer, Charlotte Moore, introduced the film with a speech acknowledging its importance. Indeed, the BBC’s decision to broadcast this important film should be commended. But it cannot excuse their editorial negligence over the past year, during which they failed to air the majority of this plentiful real-time, first-hand footage in its regular news reports. These primary sources were already available; their choice not to air them fully denied the public a true understanding of the gravity of these brutal events. Though the BBC’s broadcast of this historically significant film is an important step, it’s hard to believe it will be the start of the long-overdue overhaul our national broadcaster needs for its Israel coverage.