by Ian Paul, Premier Christianity
Social media is distorting the reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict, says Rev Dr Ian Paul. He argues that new documentary Shadows of October: Israel Under Siege contains vital but little-known information that most Western audiences have never been told
There is an old saying that, in war, the first casualty is the truth.
Again and again, I find myself in debates with people on social media on the current conflict. I ask them how they know what they claim to know. Have you lived in Israel? Have you visited the sites? Do you understand the different cultures? Do you know the basic facts of what is going on? Have you read analyses of the conflict by experts in urban warfare? Do you know what Hamas’ own analysis says?
Time and again, they don’t. They are not aware that Israel is a multicultural, diverse society, in which all have democratic rights and freedom of movement. They have little idea of the history over the last 70 years. They don’t know of the repeated attacks, through both war and terrorism, on the state of Israel. They don’t know that the largest groups of Jews in the country are Mizrahim, those expelled and ethnically cleansed from the neighbouring Arab countries.
Shadows of October is therefore a timely film that’s very much worth watching for anyone trying to make sense of the global response to the situation in Israel-Palestine on the third anniversary of the atrocities of October 7th.