The decision to watch “Bearing Witness,” the October 7 documentary
By Captain Mzungu
9 September 2025
I don’t know how many of you have ever been to a kibbutz in Israel.
I lived in one for over a year in my late teens and still to this day, some 45 years later, kibbutz life still occupies a special place in my heart. It brings smiles to my face and I often reminisce about it. Is it the early wake up times to go drive a tractor before sunrise? Or maybe the feeling of peace harvesting the land in complete silence? Working in sometimes suffocating heat, we would pick watermelons lying there on the ground in 40+ degrees. During breaks, we would smash them on the dry soil. The impact would shatter the huge fruit into small natural pieces to share between us volunteers and naturally eject all its seeds, making it easy to eat. In spite of the heat, one of my most enduring memories is how cold and fresh the inside of the melon was. I used to call it a kibbutz miracle, in the land of miracles no less.
We would call it a day by 12 noon as I was simply too hot to work after that. We would go have lunch in the common dining room and retire for an early afternoon nap. I was 19 then and my back didn’t hurt, come to think of it nothing in my body did back then. I was skinny and muscular and could perfectly function on just a few hours of sleep. Day after day, week after week, month after month, the kibbutz way of life made you a farmer, perfectly at one and in symbiosis with the land and with everyone in the kibbutz community. We rarely talked about it but we knew we were bound by this peaceful formula the kibbutz way of life had concocted for us.
As opposed to the urban parts of Israel where the hustle and bustle of middle eastern towns and cities pretty much define organized chaos, a kibbutz is the anti that. It’s an oasis of peace, green beyond belief, a beautifully landscaped little village where a frugal and simple natural life can be lived.
I remembered walking around, past the “Gan Yeladim,” the pre-school and kindergarten where children lived, learned and played all day, only to return to their parents in the late afternoon. Bruno Bettelheim, the famous American child psychologist, described it wonderfully in his seminal book “The children of the dream.”
All the kibbutzim I have ever visited were all extremely tidy and clean. The place is safe and almost perfect in every way. Even at the age of 19, I thought this could be a great place to bring up a family. Life took me quite in an opposite direction but I can understand why some people would succumb to the kibbutz way. It’s paradise really.
October 7
And this is where it hurt the most after watching October 7, Bearing witness to the massacre. It’s the opposition between the kibbutz paradise Israelis created versus the pools of children’s blood in the kibbutz kindergartens that the terrorists brought. “Palestinian” Arabs, the documentary shows in very graphic details, were absolute savages. We now know most of them were on Captagon, a powerful synthetic stimulant.
Commentators have observed that Israel is losing the PR battle. This is nothing new. “Palestinian” Arabs love to play victims and a complicit mainstream media helps them greatly in that twisted endeavor. The useful idiots on the left and green side of the political spectrum do the rest.
But the Israeli army did something rather courageous after the October 7th massacre. They gathered clips that GoPro-bearing terrorists filmed and produced a 43 minute long documentary. The documentary was only shown in limited circles. Gal Gadot presented it in L.A. at a private showing but besides that the decision was made to not widely release it. Right, wrong, who knows?
After two years of trying to eradicate the Hamas islamo-nazis in Gaza, the Israeli cabinet recently voted almost unanimously to capture all of the strip, including Gaza City where most of the remaining live hostages are believed to be held. Maybe, possibly, probably, the worldwide release of the documentary has something to do with it.
To be absolutely clear, this documentary is not for everyone and definitely not for the faint hearted. “Bearing witness” is probably the hardest thing I have ever visioned in my life. It watches like a gory horror film, a kind of Israel chainsaw massacre where viewers have to pinch themselves to remind them that it actually happened. If you or people you know are emotionally or mentally fragile, please stay away from it and make sure they stay away from it. You must have the emotional capacity to stomach this one.
When Greta Thunberg was briefly detained by Israel a few months ago, she was offered an opportunity to watch it. She predictably refused to do so. Instead she was given a kosher pastrami sandwich and was flown back to Europe, all expenses paid by Israeli taxpayers.
I believe this 43 minute long documentary is a must watch for anyone, Jewish of not, with a clear and clean moral compass. I also believe, just like Melanie Phillips and Douglas Murray stated in their last two books, that Israel is at the forefront of a civilizational battle the west doesn’t want to fight and/or refuses to acknowledge.
“October 7, Bearing witness to the massacre” will be released worldwide and on multiple platforms this early October.