Sanitizing a massacre begins with how it is presented: the language, the images, and whose suffering remains out of view.
Look at Shai Hermesh amid the ruins of his home in Kfar Aza. A former regional council head and Knesset member, he spent 20 hours hiding in his safe room during the Hamas massacre. His home became a command center for the terrorists and was destroyed. His son, Omer, was murdered.
Days later, he returned to search for anything that had survived. He found his tefillin and Hanukkah menorah intact.
Now look at English Wikipedia’s presentation of October 7: a satellite image, “armed incursions,” “Palestinian militant groups.” The opening paragraph mentions Israel’s military response before the massacre of civilians.
These choices place geography, military terminology, and geopolitical context before the people whose lives were destroyed.
The result is distance from the victims and from the brutality they endured.
This is how a massacre is sanitized.
Remembering October 7 means preserving the truth and the humanity of its victims, even when biased editors on English Wikipedia obscure that reality.🕯️