10월 7일의 비극을 목격하며 / 샤론 홀롬베

I usually write in English - because it's my mother tongue and that's what comes out when I sit down to write, and when I write here (on Facebook) about the situation in Israel, it's also usually more addressed to my family and friends abroad. This time I'm writing in Hebrew because it's important to me to say what I think and feel to you - my Israeli friends.

A few days ago, someone I love and respect very much told me that I’m just incompatible with Israel(this is not the first time I've heard this or things to this effect). I'm definitely debating - should I leave and when do you know it's time to leave, I do have somewhere to leave to, so why don't I leave... But when she said it, my heart broke a little more (how much can one heart break? It turns out, a lot), because even if we assume that it’s true, I am here, and in the meantime, I haven’t left, so what should we do? And if it’s true, and people like me, who believe in non-violence and peace(this is an oversimplification, but you get it, I’m a leftist, just somehow even more so?), if I don't fit in here, does that mean that this is how Israel lives - forever?

I don't know, but I do know that we must not become what we despise. That we must keep our humanity. We must be humans. Especially now.

I keep hearing people call those who committed the horrific and incomprehensible acts of Hamas 'animals'; This dehumanization justifies violence (not that I understand why you can be violent toward animals). Yesterday I heard a journalist say to the camera without a moment of hesitation that we must continue to show the world the horrors to justify our cruel actions to come. Cruelty. Is this what we want? And for the world to give us approval for it?

The people who did this are not animals. First of all, animals don't do such things. And the shocking fact is that they are just humans. (Like the Nazis, who they are also being compared to, who were also, in the end, human beings. Human beings who did inhumane things, crimes against humanity, but human beings). Specifically, they are men. (If there is a woman who participated in the events, I did not see them, and even if there was, it’s still the patriarchy). These are men who did what they did, and there is no justification explanation, or constellation of circumstances or context that could make their actions more comprehensible or acceptable.