‘My biggest disappointment is with my own political home, the global Left’

MAYA GLASSMAN: As a peace activist, I always expected my partners in peacebuilding to denounce violence. Many didn’t utter one word about October 7, in person or in public.

It has taken me more than two weeks to be able to sit down and write anything. This is one of the most terrible times of my life. I’m still grieving. I find myself alarmed by loud noises or people who seem to be acting suspiciously. I wake up to this nightmare every morning, thinking about the babies, children, and elders among the hundreds of hostages who are now in their fourth week of captivity. I believe that all of you in the Australian Jewish community feel the same pain.

I am an Israeli peace activist who came to Australia about four years ago through a scholarship I received from a program that sponsors a master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies for experienced peacebuilders across the globe.

In Israel, I organised protests for a two-state solution when I worked in the Peace Now movement.  I also worked as a political adviser in the Knesset, writing speeches for Meretz party MKs advocating for human rights. A couple of years ago I facilitated conflict-based dialogue groups between Israelis and Palestinians for the Seeds of Peace organisation.

With a Palestinian partner, I travelled to the UK, where we worked with the Solutions Not Sides program to explain how one can be a supporter of peace, rather than an inferno. I dedicated my time, effort and heart to promoting peace and compassion.

But over the past two weeks, something inside me has broken.

I thought that people who believed in the human spirit, in equality, liberty, peace - people like me - would know better. I believed it would be obvious that when young people at an outdoor dance party are butchered, dozens of babies are slaughtered, women raped and murdered, and children shot dead in front of their parents, there would be a huge outcry.