Rockets blind us to the human on the other side

ITTAY FLESCHER: Just last week, Israeli and Palestinian families met for a beach day in Tel Aviv. But when hostilities resume, we can't see there are victims across the border, too.

Every Saturday, I like to go for a run or walk down the Park Hamesila in Jerusalem, usually with a friend. The path goes through the German Colony which is home to many modern orthodox Jews. This week I was alone so I took a phone with me to listen to a podcast on my run. After I finished, I took a few moments to sit on a park bench in the shade to catch my breath.

The war had broken out between Israel and Gaza just the night before so, the first thing I did was check the news to see what was going on. A moment after I started scrolling, a religious woman in her 60s came up to me.

“I’m so glad you are here, I need to know what’s going on, and you are the first person I am seeing on a phone,” she said.

I immediately realised the information she was seeking and told her the latest news on the violence. I said, “Since last night there have been 160 rockets fired on Israel, thankfully almost all of them were stopped by the Iron Dome so there were no injuries on our side.”

I then added that there were also two Islamic Jihad commanders killed in Gaza, plus several civilians including a five-year-old girl. She immediately cut me off and said, “Oh, I’m not interested in what’s happening there, they deserve it. I only want to know what happened on our side.”

I added a few more details about what Lapid and Gantz said in their Friday night live press conference, after which she asked me, “Are you Israeli?” despite the fact that I had been speaking with her in fluent Hebrew up until this point.

I understood the subtext very clearly. The fact that I had shown concern for Palestinians casualties cast doubt on my loyalty.