The “war schizophrenia” of Israel’s peaceniks

By Wendell Steavenson

It became too much when they published David’s name, address, phone number and photograph along with the words: “The next one to get it.” He left his home and borrowed a house from a friend. “I deleted all my social-media accounts,” he told me. “I don’t answer my phone to any number I don’t know.” David is a film-maker living in Tel Aviv, who describes himself as “ultra-progressive, left-wing, anti-Zionist, pro-peace”. His views were minority ones before Hamas’s attack; now they have provoked threats. After his personal information was published on a right-wing Israeli Telegram channel, David was forced into hiding. “If you dare to show solidarity or compassion towards the Palestinian people in Gaza nowadays you are literally risking yourself in Israel. It’s serious shit,” he said.

David wanted it made clear that he was appalled by Hamas’s rampage. He volunteers as a driver for Road to Recovery, an organisation that ferries Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to Israeli hospitals for treatment. More than a dozen volunteers and their family members were killed or kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th. “You are talking to a devastated man. I know some of those killed and kidnapped and injured. I have been to funerals and memorial services. I have seen people I know who have lost everything they had. My heart is broken for them.” But, he added, “My heart is broken for the [thousands of] Palestinians in Gaza who have lost their lives and the more than [hundreds of thousands] who have had to leave their homes. For me there is no contradiction.”