Published: 7 November 2024
Last updated: 7 November 2024
I have grown up with the State of Israel. As the child of parents who escaped from Nazi Germany and who lived their lives as husks of their former selves, I saw the State of Israel as a beacon of light. At the time of the Six Day War, I travelled hopefully to Israel as a volunteer. Together with thousands of other young Jewish people from around the world, we vowed ‘never again’.
Since those heady days, returning many times to Israel to visit family and to run training programs for Israeli and Palestinian professionals, I have held on to hope. Hope that the denigrated language I witnessed towards Arabs that reminded me of growing up in apartheid South Africa, would be countered by the humanity and enlightenment of the many Israelis I met and worked with.
As a child psychotherapist and clinical psychologist, I reflect on how it has come about that the extreme right-wing leadership of Israel now presides over not only the slaughterhouse of Gaza but is also immune to the death and captivity of its own people.
The uncomfortable and painful truth is that trauma has many faces and lives a long life. It manifests itself when we least expect it to and contains at its heart the terrible kernel of repetition.
Jews are not immune from this experience and from changing from victim into aggressor. When we examine the current events through the lens of trauma, we come to understand that the Palestinians and Israelis have together been overtaken by an overwhelming collective trauma.
We must not turn away from seeing the tiny white shrouds of children killed in what remains of the rubble of Gaza
They have been misled by false prophets; by leaders who talk only in absolutes and division as in ‘we are the sons of light they are the sons of darkness’. For both, the history of dispossession and violence has become enacted through what I describe as The Imitation of Oppression. It is summed up by the image of young Palestinian boys hurling stones at Israeli soldiers, a stunning reversal of the story of David and Goliath.
Comments7
Cathy Troupp3 December at 07:20 pm
It takes great courage and knowledge to put this into writing even though so many of us think this and feel this. As the child of a Holocaust survivor I feel greatly validated. Thank you so much.
Just one observation: it is much, much too late for the idea that Israelis could in any way support Palestinian parents. That sounds like an insult. My mother did not turn to the German people to help her heal and overcome the loss of her entire family and her home. I think it’s time for Israelis to be silent for a while.
Justine9 November at 03:57 am
Thank you Ruth for putting into words a truth that I feel very deeply in my bones.
Miriam Frommer9 November at 12:31 am
This article really goes below the surface to highlight how our historical Jewish traumas have made it so hard for us as individuals to feel compassion for the other. It is a tragedy that so many Jewish leaders in Diaspora communities here and in the United States, have singularly failed to call out the increasingly undemocratic and cruel practices of recent Israeli governments, totally overlooking the basic Torah principles of justice and the sanctity of all life.
RAMON CAPEL7 November at 12:32 pm
Thank you for the profound reflection in the article. Of course it implies solutions, but accepting them requires reflection and acceptance of the moral obligations we have as individuals, religious or not. The promised land, without morals, is a golden calf. Thank you for share light and hope.
Amanda7 November at 07:43 am
Understanding is the first step to “solutions”. Thankyou Ruth for this insightful piece.
Abraham James7 November at 05:31 am
You offer no solutions.
Ben7 November at 04:59 am
Thank you for this piece.