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This episode is a conversation with Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Yuval Leikin, who was responsible for creating the October 7 atrocities exhibit. Leikin describes the process of collecting the materials, the moral and practical challenges, and the insights that arose from dealing with the atrocities and the motives of their perpetrators.
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Creating the exhibit
According to Yuval Leikin, who served in the training division of the Intelligence Directorate, about two weeks after October 7 he received the mission to create an “atrocities exhibit.” In his view, the very use of this term shows how the event was perceived by the high command: an event whose essence is the atrocity, not necessarily the operational aspects.
The mission was vague and raised many questions, such as who the target audience was, which atrocities to display, and what the legal and moral limitations were, for example regarding the privacy of the murdered and the dignity of the individual.
Sources of the documentation
Leikin explains that when he began his work, the internet was already flooded with atrocity materials. He identifies three main sources for these materials.
The first source was the Hamas terrorists themselves. He claims that filming the acts of murder and disseminating them were part of the mission assigned to them, with the goal of creating chaos, psychological warfare, and exciting their supporters.
The second source was journalists and private individuals, both Israeli and foreign, who moved around the area and collected materials, sometimes for self-promotion.
The third source was Israeli bodies, both institutional and semi-institutional, that operated channels of influence, sometimes anonymously, and distributed materials to shock and provoke criticism in international public opinion.
According to him, in the first few weeks, there was chaos in the management of the materials, but most Israeli actors refrained from distributing images of children or of explicit acts of rape.
Beyond the atrocity: The full story
During their work, Leikin and his team realized that the story was deeper than the atrocity itself. They began to investigate the entire “value chain” that led to the murder: the preparations, the religious and ideological basis, and the social environment in Gaza that he says encourages a culture of death. The story expanded from the individual terrorist to the entire society.
Israel’s “day of lineage”
Leikin calls October 7 Israel’s “day of lineage.” In his view, it is an event that illustrates what could have happened on all of the country’s borders, and serves as a reminder that Israel must “forever live by the sword.” He believes a similar event could happen again, including from Gaza, because the hatred, the education, and the means still exist there. According to him, for the exhibit intended for international audiences, they considered calling it “Amalek.”
How to display atrocities
Leikin describes the dilemma of how to present the atrocities. In the exhibit, they chose not to create a logical order, but to present “walls of photos” that simulate the chaos and randomness of the massacre.
One of the key insights from the work was that it is much harder for people to hear the stories than to see the pictures. The imagination, he says, fills in the details in a more difficult way. He illustrates this with the story of the Kapsheter family, who were murdered in their car, and with the description of the bodies’ positions, which indicated resistance at the moment of death.
In addition to the victims, the exhibit also shows the murderers: their faces, their laughter, and their religious fervor, to emphasize the gap between their inhumanity and the helplessness of the murdered.
The murderers’ motives
Leikin analyzes the motives of the murderers, who were mostly young men who grew up in Gaza. He points to three main factors. The first is human bestiality and the need to release aggression. The second is the feeling of absolute control they had in the area. And the third is a deep-seated, antisemitic, and anti-human hatred, built by Hamas’s system of education and incitement.
He expresses pessimism about the future and believes the war has only deepened the hatred among the younger generation in Gaza.
The future of the exhibit and of memory
The exhibit is located at the Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center (I.H.C.) in Glilot, but for now it is not open to the general public. It is used mainly for diplomats, journalists, and IDF cadets. Leikin expresses hope that the responsible authorities will decide to open it to the public.
According to him, this situation is an expression of the fact that two years after the event, the state has still not formalized the mechanisms for documenting, commemorating, and researching October 7. However, he ends on a cautiously optimistic note. October 7 was a sobering event that reminded Israelis that they live in a jungle where strength is the only way to survive.
The original episode, in Hebrew: זוועה