A shorter edited version of this text appeared originally on September 2, 2024, in the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung (taz)

Those unaffected look at Israel and Palestine like a thrilling TV show. This is not helping the people on the ground.

While negotiations for a deal between Israel and Hamas are stalling, and six Israeli hostages were found dead in a tunnel under Rafah over the weekend, the West stares intently at their screens – as if expecting the next plot twist in a Netflix series.

But should this true nightmare ever end, we will likely never fully recover from it – neither as perpetrators nor as victims. The brutal reality of millions of involuntary protagonists won’t change quickly either. 

The massacre of October 7th occurred after months when it appeared Israel was on the brink of civil war. On that morning, everything really collapsed. The state failed. The sense of security among many Israelis was shattered; everything felt paranoid yet possible at the same time. It still does.

Beyond the concrete fear on both sides, surprisingly many spectators outside the war revealed themselves to be ethically unstable, obsessed with virtue signaling and simplistic statements meant only to display their own moral values, but helping no one. 

Shortly after the Hamas attack, an acquaintance posted that recently relocated Israelis in Berlin should be excluded everywhere – from exhibitions, bars, parties, or sex. An actor was encouraged to end collaboration with an Israeli theater colleague who has long lived in Germany and advocates for peace. Other Israelis were spat on, sent away, uninvited – the list is long. This behavior isn’t decolonization; it’s complete moral bankruptcy.

In progressive “safe” spaces, exclusion of Israelis has become common. It’s accompanied by ideological purity tests to check if one is “kosher” – despite the “wrong” identity. Wasn’t this loneliness, being excluded by fellow humans from one day to the next, something our grandparents told us about?

Yes, antisemitic tropes remain firmly fixed even in the minds of some leftists who suspect Israelis categorically. Others remain silent about their comrades’ suspicions – out of solidarity with Palestinians. Palestinians absolutely need solidarity too! But such exclusions contradict the complexity of the situation.

Those who speak about the Israel-Palestine war with slogans instead of nuance end up in a binary brand loyalty program – designed to penetrate the meaning-seeking souls of consumers and – surprise! – portray Jews as the source of all evil. This series has been running for two millennia.

It’s not progressive to ignore the situation in Gaza, the occupied territories, or October 7th. Nor is it progressive to demand the abolition of a 76-year-old country. Words are thrown around without really protecting rights, knowing data, or examining power structures – whether “apartheid,” “genocide,” or “intifada.” Portraying Israel as a colonial project ultimately aims to undermine its right to exist. And conflict solutions don’t emerge by rewriting history into nuance-free nonsense.

Jews were repeatedly persecuted – not only in Europe but also by Palestinians, for example in 1834. Al-Husseini’s plots with Hitler must not be forgotten, just like pogroms in the Middle Ages in Fez, Ramla, Damascus, and pogroms in the 20th century in Alexandria and Cairo and the Farhud in Iraq. Jewish history is a history of minorities and refugees, which undoubtedly created more refugees, but it isn’t colonialism.

The ultra-nationalist Netanyahu government and the supremacists in the settlements make arguments difficult for progressive Israelis. Yet there are clear differences between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Israel’s government or history. Criticism of Holocaust instrumentalization is legitimate; reinterpreting Zionism itself as the Holocaust is not. This isn’t semantic re-evaluation – it’s antisemitic evolution.

Israel’s complex history can’t be forced into a simplified plot of good versus evil. The current discourse extremism serves many egos and interests, but not Palestinians or Israelis themselves, who must live together. Israel is a reality for people on the ground. More than 80 percent of Palestinians and Israelis were born after the 1967 occupation. Narratives unite groups but aren’t reality. The debate, as conducted here in Germany and elsewhere worldwide, is actually a colonialist gesture par excellence – everyone wants to speak knowingly about the series they eagerly follow, but which changes nothing in their own lives.

What would help instead? Polemic times require greater intellectual clarity. De-escalation knowledge and dialectical abilities are the foundation of diplomacy. We need answers and guarantees for Palestinians and Israelis, for security and hope, and discourse that enables this – not one that contributes to escalation itself.

We have enough aggression and radicals of our own, thanks. This is indeed a less interesting role, but what can one do—the Middle East isn’t there to fill individuals’ existential void. It’s too late for the countless civilians in Gaza who are dead, traumatized, severely injured, and fleeing. Likewise for the six hostages executed by Hamas. Peace-seeking Israelis and Palestinians need allies outside the Middle East who can differentiate – not binge-watchers just waiting for the next cliffhanger.

I hope we manage to build a Middle Eastern diasporic movement that doesn’t seek external legitimacy and frees itself from restrictive structures. A movement that understands our shared responsibility for each other and our future. A movement that prefers constructive building over historical deconstruction. Most of us know anyway that our fundamentalists are our death.