Essential viewing. What’s happening today is not new and indeed has roots much further beyond The March of Return, but this is a reminder that the Israeli state has been getting away with this for a long time. Indeed, that they’ve been encouraged to. Then it was Trump, now it’s Biden, but the US always aids and abets Israel’s cruelty. It’s chilling watching Israeli soldiers record the murder of a child and whoop and holler over it, and know you can hop on Israeli TikTok to see the same gleeful dehumanization. It’s infuriating to see officials emboldened another to admit their methods like it’s the plainest thing in the world while American media excuses them and seeing the same thing happen on our screens today. It’s heartbreaking to see the journalists and medics trying to help people, and the families grieving over what was and the future that was ripped away, and to know that they’re still dying as we live and breathe.

It’s a hard, devastating watch. I almost broke down more than once. But I admire Abby Martin saying to hell with some cowardly ideal of objectivity or balance. You can hear the barely constrained anger, heartbreak, disdain… all leaking through. This doc stands proudly with Gaza and Palestine, as should we all. There’s no two sides to this- just right and wrong, justice and cruelty, life and death. It shows how Gaza did things the ‘right way’, peaceful and nonviolent, and the horrific response from Israel, and how Israel wanted Hamas in power as the perfect excuse to treat every man, woman, and child as enemy combatants. We see the very same playbook now. We stood by and allowed it, and then some try and wag their finger at what transpires when you’re under an occupation that will not end. How can you see this doc, and what happened before, and what’s happening now, and not think something must change? How can you not stand with these people? How does your heart not weep seeing vibrant life cut short, seeing a father in despair and his baby daughter pulling him back however briefly by falling into his arms, seeing a family mourn a woman who only ever wanted to heal her people? From the river to the sea.