Initially, I wanted to talk to you about season 11 of The X-Files which I was finally able to discover and which I loved. But, I was caught up with news of such abysmal stupidity and indecency that I feel obliged to open it, if only to exorcise my own demons.
Mental health and dignity
Let’s set the context. Under the aegis of a Renaissance deputy, members of the France-Israel friendship group were asked to see images recovered by the IDF on the abuses committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023. These images were filmed by the terrorists, notably thanks to GoPros. A first “screening” was organized in France, by the Israeli embassy, to which journalists were invited – if we can put it that way –. I wasn’t part of it and even if I was, I wouldn’t have gone.
MPs, including Éric Bothorel, said they did not want to watch this film, especially because they do not “need” to see the images to know what happened. Some fine minds, for whom courage consists of crossing the street without triple-checking that there is no car approaching, have dared to say that this is a lack of courage.
Let us say it once and for all: refusing to see shocking content, when it is not necessary, is not proof of cowardice. All journalists who work in conflict zones or who are confronted with very sensitive content say it: we do not emerge mentally unscathed from seeing what one human being can inflict on another. Especially when it’s in technicolor, with impeccable sound and a very clear image.
As much as I am the first to criticize parliamentarians for things, I perfectly understand their refusal to watch this film. But, seeing certain exchanges on Twitter, I found worse than accusations of cowardice.
On the importance of remaining silent
After the screening, the colleagues stationed in the Salle des Quatre Columns found MP Aymeric Caron. After a quick exchange, he joined duplex BFM TV for an interview. And it was before our amazed eyes that he quietly explained that the images of the attack of October 7, 2023 should perhaps be available to everyone and that they be contextualized. Even though he says that having seen these images does nothing and that not everyone is able to see them.
Everything happens as if Aymeric Caron pretended not to understand what we were talking about. First of all, distributing these images almost freely would contribute to Hamas’ propaganda of terror. Terrorist groups use social networks to convey a message of fear to populations. Furthermore, in the digital age, an image or video that is posted online no longer belongs to the person who posted it online. It will be amplified, distorted, turned around, edited. Everybody knows it.
It is all the more useless as the conflict is still ongoing. As terrible as it sounds, the only smart thing to do to find out what happened is to wait. We Westerners, comfortably seated on our sofas, watching Netflix and writing on our keyboards, we can do absolutely nothing about the conflict that is currently unfolding. We can possibly let our leaders do it and we, journalists, can try to cover the subject. But, the ordinary citizen? He can only wait and for some, this wait is more painful than for others.
Back to a nightmare
The events of October 7, 2023 had a curious mental effect on me: I had the impression of returning to November 13, 2015. I can’t fully explain it. Precisely, in the current “debate” on whether or not to show the images to the public, there was the reference to November 13. And for good reason. You may not remember, but some Twitter accounts shared images of the Bataclan pit.
Accounts that were shared by far-right elected officials. I saw these images on my professional account. I didn’t want to see them, I didn’t search for them: they just appeared in my feed. I haven’t forgotten them. And as I write these lines, one of the images sticks in my head. The dirt is still there. There is no purifying mask for the images you have in your head, no peeling or exfoliation.
Even someone like me, addicted to horror films, cannot remain completely placid in the face of such images. Because I know a movie is a movie. At the end, the actors are still alive, they’re laughing, they’re promoting the film, they’re going to party with the film crew. The corpses I saw in the Bataclan photo will never party again.
You won’t be able to forget what you saw
And then there are the loved ones who are still alive. Do you want to have your heart permanently broken? Imagine what the relatives of the victims of the attacks of November 13, 2013 must have felt when they saw the images circulating on social networks.
Now, put yourself in the place of those who are close to the victims of October 7, 2023 and who, for some, still do not know if they are alive or hostages. Imagine the infinite pain Shani’s mother must have felt to discover the images of her daughter, in mainstream media, with the description of what was suffered by her and others.
Some argue that it is not normal in a democracy for certain content to be reserved for certain people, because this would be based on moral and not legal considerations. This forgets that a good part of our societies are based on moral values which have no legal basis. No one legally requires you to say hello when you enter a business, yet you do.
Because it meets a moral code. Assume that it is the same for the images of October 7, 2023, with an almost health standard. You won’t be able to forget what you saw. It will stay deep in your mind and you will lose a part of your humanity. If you really feel ready for this, take it all in and go report on conflict zones.