October 7: When Violence Becomes Acceptable
Three years after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel
A public demonstration in Prague, Czech Republic, drawing attention to Israelis taken hostage during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Source: Wikimedia Commons
On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched a coordinated attack on southern Israel. Approximately 1,200 people were killed, including hundreds of civilians. Families were murdered in their homes, people attending the Nova music festival were attacked, and 251 people were taken hostage and transported to Gaza.
Three years later, the events of October 7 raise a question that extends far beyond this particular tragedy: How do individuals and societies come to accept, justify, or even celebrate violence against civilians?
How Violence Becomes Acceptable
Mass violence does not necessarily begin with weapons. It can begin with language.
Political propaganda portrays entire communities as enemies.
Individuals lose their identities and become representatives of a supposedly dangerous group. The distinction between combatants and civilians begins to disappear.
Violence is then presented as an act of self-defense, historical justice, or national survival.
People who would never personally commit murder may nevertheless come to justify the killing of strangers. Others remain silent, whether from fear, indifference, social pressure, or conformity.
Yet silence does not necessarily mean agreement, and public expressions of support cannot automatically be attributed to an entire population.
Understanding these distinctions is essential to studying the relationship between propaganda, public opinion, and mass violence.
The Responsibility of Societies
The Holocaust, Stalinist repression, and other episodes of mass violence demonstrate that large-scale crimes require more than decisions by political leaders.
They involve institutions, bureaucracies, armed forces, propaganda systems, and individuals who participate in, facilitate, or justify persecution.
But how should societies confront the crimes committed in their name or with the support of some of their members?
Criminal responsibility belongs to individuals whose actions meet the legal requirements for liability. Moral and political responsibility raise broader questions about public support, complicity, resistance, and silence.
No population should be treated as collectively guilty because of its national, ethnic, or religious identity.
At the same time, the role of propaganda, incitement, and public acceptance of violence demands serious historical investigation.
The Struggle Over Memory
The consequences of October 7 did not end with the attacks. Survivors and families of victims continue to preserve testimonies, photographs, recordings, and personal histories. Their work is essential to documenting what happened and remembering those who were killed or taken hostage.
The subsequent war in Gaza has also caused extensive civilian suffering and destruction. Investigating crimes committed against Palestinians is essential to establishing responsibility and preserving the historical record.
Acknowledging the suffering of one community must never require denying the suffering of another. Historical truth cannot be protected through selective remembrance.
For the Museum of State Terror, documenting violence means examining not only the crimes themselves, but also the mechanisms that make such crimes possible — propaganda, dehumanization, the normalization of cruelty, and the attempts to justify or deny atrocities.
It also means preserving the voices of those who resist violence and refuse to remain silent.
The history of mass violence is not only the history of perpetrators and victims. It is also the history of societies confronted with a choice: to justify, to deny, to remain silent, or to seek the truth.
On the third anniversary of October 7, we remember the victims and reaffirm the importance of documenting crimes against civilians, preserving evidence, and defending the dignity of every human life.
