(NewsNation) — A French-Israeli filmmaker says the international response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, particularly pro-Palestinian demonstrations at American universities, compelled him to create a documentary about the conflict.
Pierre Rehov, speaking from Ashdod, Israel, said he was disturbed by reactions that seemed to excuse the attack.
“I was expecting all cities in the world, all people, everybody in the streets of Washington and Paris with T-shirts saying ‘I’m Israel,'” Rehov said Sunday on “NewsNation Prime.” “It was exactly the opposite.”
Rehov said he began working on the documentary, titled “Pogroms,” after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made comments that Rehov felt inappropriately connected Hamas’ actions to the Palestinian situation.
The filmmaker experienced the attack firsthand, awakening to air raid sirens at 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7. He recalled receiving a warning from a friend to lock his doors and windows because “Palestinians are invading Israel.”
Rehov said he was unable to reach his wife, who was staying closer to the Gaza border, for two hours.
The documentary aims to explain the political and historical background of the conflict, Rehov said. About 100 hostages remain in Hamas custody one year after the attack.
What to know: The Israel-Hamas war
Protests have been taking place across the world since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war which erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed thousands, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
American officials and Israeli leaders are striving to discourage Iran and other neighboring countries from further escalating tensions in the region. However, the Palestinian issue is a powder keg among the Arab populace who believe that the Palestinians have been denied the promised two-state solution outlined in the Oslo Accords decades ago.
Hamas said its attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, threats to the status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the plight of Palestinian refugees and prisoners.
On the Israeli side, there’s immense anger and a strong push to bring the remaining hostages back, a goal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is committed to achieving through this military offensive.