A Year of Living Among Genocide Apologists
A Year of Living Among Genocide Apologists
Diana Buttu on what life in Israel has been like since Oct. 7, 2023.
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One year. I cannot believe that it has been one year. One year of witnessing Palestinians try to retrieve mangled bodies from the sites of Israeli bombs – whether they be homes, hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, or even tents. One year of seeing children scream in fear, in physical pain, in emotional pain, knowing that the world is and always will be cruel. One year of watching one of the most vibrant Palestinian cities, Gaza City, turned into rubble. One year of worrying about friends and futures. One year of explaining over and over again that Palestinians deserve to live and to be free; that Oct. 7 is the result of decades of Israeli brutality and oppression; and that nothing – absolutely nothing – justifies genocide.
Yet, Israeli society has been drunk on perpetrating crimes. Unlike in the West, where Israelis try to portray themselves as victims, in Israel, the image is the exact opposite: that of strong, undefeatable soldiers who assert their superiority over Palestinians. This is what explains the many TikToks proudly showing Israeli soldiers blowing up Palestinian universities and homes. This is what explains the desire to show them torturing Palestinians and the endless videos of Israelis dressed in hijab and with dirt on their faces mocking Palestinian women and children who have survived Israel’s relentless bombs. Israel is the place where superiority (and cruelty) is on full display.
Throughout the past year, I have been asked what it is like to live in Haifa, among Israelis. Thinking about my answer, I find myself thinking about my parents, who were both born before the Nakba but were raised in Nazareth, a city that was taken over and became part of Israel. I find myself thinking about my late father, and what it was like for him to live among the very people who perpetrated the Nakba, who were apologists for the Nakba, or who denied the Nakba. I find myself thinking about how invisible Palestinians were then – and now – to Israelis, how dehumanized we were then and now. I think about the ways my parents – and the 150,000 other Palestinians who remained in what became Israel – maneuvered their fragile existence among the criminals and their cheerleaders. Their homeland was sacrificed and transformed into a large Israeli military base, while their bodies became the repositories of Israeli cruelty. Israeli policies are premised on the idea that what cannot be achieved through force can only be achieved through more force.
I think about this because that pattern of invisibility and disregard for Palestinian lives continues to this very day, including in Haifa. It is part of the ethos of the state. Today, as Israel makes daily raids on Palestinian cities and towns, imprisoning (and, of course, torturing) thousands, destroying homes, and tearing up cities with bulldozers, Israel’s cruelty and short-sightedness are on full display. As Israelis discuss why all Hamas leaders have not yet been assassinated (as though that were legal), toast one another on TV after Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination, and joke about blowing people up during Israel’s pager attack, little thought, if any, is given to any of the consequences of such actions. For them, the flattening of six buildings in Beirut, the killing of about 2,000 Lebanese people over the past month, and the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians mean absolutely nothing. There are no major protests demanding that Israel stop the genocide; just protests (which have all but completely died down) demanding that Israel strike a deal to bring back the Israeli captives.
As an example of what it is like to live in Israel, one only needs to look to the experience of a 12-year-old girl.