Jerusalem Post columnist proposes giving media access to archive of October 7 attacks
In Israel, a Jerusalem Post columnist proposed that the authorities change their approach to distributing video evidence of the October 7 attacks. In his view, instead of closed screenings for invited audiences, foreign newsrooms could be given access to previously unpublished materials for independent journalistic verification.
A proposal for foreign newsrooms
The author noted that during closed screenings, a military officer brings a hard drive, recording is prohibited, and the storage device is taken away after the 47-minute viewing. He proposed that Israeli authorities select 100 recordings that can be responsibly released and offer them separately to foreign media outlets as exclusives.
Under this plan, journalists would receive the original files, information about their provenance, and assistance in contacting witnesses willing to speak. Newsrooms could establish locations, compare videos, and verify officials’ explanations, while clearly stating in publications what they were able to confirm and what they were not.
The columnist stressed that such work would require funding for researchers, translators, editors, and lawyers. In his view, funding should not give a donor the right to approve the script or remove inconvenient interviews.
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Journalists’ independence and protection of families
The author also believes that Israeli officials should be prepared for critical reporting. According to him, a single recording may simultaneously document a Hamas crime and the hours before help arrived, while a witness may describe both people’s exceptional courage and a government mistake.
He separately urged people not to regard the most graphic footage as the most useful. In his view, videos can show the planning, coordination, and sequence of an attack without showing people’s deaths. Families should approve the use of recordings featuring their relatives, while materials concerning sexual violence require especially careful consideration by specialists.
References to the film NAZA
The author linked his proposal to the Venice Film Festival award for the documentary film NAZA by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film is based on anonymous testimony from military personnel and intelligence officers who claim that the army calculated expected civilian casualties before airstrikes in Gaza and carried out the strikes nonetheless. The Israel Defense Forces said that these testimonies cannot be verified and that decisions on striking targets are made by people.
