Knesset members cried, fainted, fled in tears after Hamas atrocities shown at Israeli parliament

More than 50 lawmakers were present on Wednesday for a screening of 47 minutes of footage showing the brutal atrocities carried out by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens on Oct. 7.

The film was previously screened for Israeli and foreign journalists.

Many Knesset members could not stand the revolting images, with some of them leaving after just a few minutes, many breaking out in tears, and one Knesset member, Likud party Knesset Member Tsega Melaku, even fainting shortly after the screening.

The Knesset staff provided water bottles at the entry to the screening hall and the Knesset’s head doctor offered sedative pills before the film but to no avail.

הרוע".
ח"כ וולדיגר בדמעות: כדאי שכל העולם יראה מי הם אותם "בלתי מעורבים" שנטלו חלק בפראות, שתו קולה והתענגו על ריטוש ילדים קטנים".
ח"כ סובה: "התמונות הכי קשות שראיתי בחיים".

מהמראות היום בכנסת: אלמוג כהן, אוהד טל, נעמה לזימי וח"כ לשעבר פינטו ממררים בבכי: pic.twitter.com/xoYZGnRdEN

— Moti Kastel מוטי קסטל (@KastelMoti) November 1, 2023

“I have never taken such a pill, today I took it without thinking twice,” said Likud's Galit Distel Atbaryan.

“I held out in the hall for five minutes. Then I ran away crying and shaking. Sedative pill or no – I’m writing the following words out of an anxiety attack, such as I've never experienced before: Don't hate each other. The monsters hate you enough.”

After the film, three senior psychologists, experts for emergency psychological treatment, were rushed to the Knesset at the request of several Members of Knesset who were struggling to recover, the Israel Hayom news outlet reported.

Inside the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, they are currently showing a 45-minute video that reveals the atrocities committed by Hamas on the seventh of October. This video, unseen by the general public, has left the MPs in tears as they exit the screening one by one. A table… pic.twitter.com/ITnumRshCZ

— razsauber (@razsauber) November 1, 2023

Keti Shitrit of the Likud party left the screening after only a few minutes.

“I could not bear the sights. I could not see the evil. The voices of the children, their pleas in the face of pure evil, do not leave me,” she told Ynet News. “Seeing evil in this way is something that the human mind cannot absorb.”

“The eyes and the head can’t grasp it,” said Almog Cohen of the Jewish Power party who took part in the battle in his hometown of Ofakim on Oct. 7.

“The pictures of babies the age of my son broke me. I walked out in the middle, broken. Unable to see and understand what happened to us.”

“I couldn't stay until the end,” Labor party Knesset Member Naama Lazimi said.

“I watched revolting horrors, then the picture of the murdered tender baby appeared, it was so painful and difficult that I went out. It will be engraved in the depths of my soul forever.”

Most Knesset members left before the end of the video screening but those who remained for the entire screening left the hall crying and shaking.

Yesh Atid Knesset Member Vladimir Beliak said after the screening: “I can’t talk about the content, I can’t talk about the feelings. Just one sentence – never forget and never forgive. Never.”

Members of the Arab Ra’am party, Mansour Abbas, Waleed al-Hawashla, and Iman Khatib-Yassin, had not registered to attend the screening but surprisingly decided to attend.

Abbas walked out in tears, saying: “It's difficult, I cannot speak.”