As a Bereaved Sister of an IDF Soldier, I Ask: What Has Become of Israeli Society? -
I am writing these lines as a bereaved sister. I lost my elder brother in the first Lebanon war, and since then, I have contended with a deep pain that cannot be healed, a wound that has stayed with me through life. I know how it feels when you hear the news, how the earth crumbles under your feet. I know about the heart's flame that never goes out.
Therefore, I allow myself to ask in a loud and clear voice, how could it be that millions of Israelis, rational and moral people, have lived their daily lives while ignoring the horror being conducted in our name in Gaza, no more than one or two hours away by car?
How can hundreds of thousands of Israeli soldiers, young people who grew up and were educated here, our children, be turned into instruments of war capable of inflicting immense suffering on civilians without any remorse? What happened to us? Where has compassion and human responsibility gone? About 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. More than 115,000 have been injured. Hundreds of thousands have been left without shelter, water and medical care. Some 17,000 children and 12,000 women, 1,000 babies.
Mourners react near the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Monday.Credit: Hatem Khaled/Reuters
These are not numbers but lives that have been taken away. We can – we must – ask these difficult questions despite everything that happened on October 7.
These questions do not detract from the anger and pain over what Hamas did to the communities on the Gaza border, in cities, in kibbutzim and at the Nova music festival on that day. We will never forget: Hamas' shame will never be erased. But how much longer will we continue perpetuating this act of revenge?
From my experience as a bereaved sister, I can tell you that revenge offers no comfort, no help. It only consumes you from the inside. I know the slogans about how "we will destroy Hamas" and "we will restore security." But does anyone really feel safer today? Is this the security we wished for?
They say that those who support peace are naive. But the naive are those who still believe war brings security. In reality, only understanding, reconciliation and diplomacy will bring quiet and true security to the two peoples.
Palestinian children react at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday.Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
And what will be for those who grow up in Gaza now after more than 550 days and nights of bombing, destruction and terror? What kind of children will come of age there?
Children searching for their parents' bodies among the rubble. Parents running with their bleeding babies to bombed-out hospitals. Boys and girls who have no school, no home, no clothes – nothing.
What do we expect will happen to them after the war? Just look at the hate that was planted in young Israelis after October 7. Now, imagine what has been implanted in the hearts of children in Gaza who have lost everything.
Another repeated claim is that Hamas fighters hide behind civilians. But does that justify killing them? Are these our values? If a murderer was standing in front of you holding a baby, would you shoot both? Is this what we were taught in school? In the army? And do we Israelis really not care what the world thinks of our actions? Can we solve this by declaring everyone an antisemite and looking the other way?
A woman reacts while holding the body of a Palestinian child killed in Israeli strikes, at the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza on Wednesday.Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
And perhaps the most important question for us in Israel: What about the hostages? Every intelligent person knows that most of them were released through negotiations. And the rest? Still held hostage. The war is not bringing them home, but it is setting their fate. Most of their families are calling for an end to the war. They do not want their loved ones to come home at the expense of their lives, nor at the expense of the lives of the soldiers or of innocent people in Gaza.
In a place where no value is placed on Palestinian lives, the lives of soldiers or hostages are also not valued. It is a slippery slope that we have long since slipped down and reached the bottom.
I write this because I love my country and its people, and because I grieve for it. I know the price of bereavement, and I don't wish it on any mother, any sister or any people. For the lives of the hostages, the soldiers, the Palestinians and the Israelis, I cry for my beloved country. The crying must stop.