The amount of tragic world-news seems to get worse and worse. I open my Instagram and the first post I see is of an Israeli woman, who was kept hostage for 54 days by Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas. She tells her shocking story. A year later still 101 hostages are facing their worst nightmares. Almost directly after this video I see Bisan, a Palestinian young woman reporting from Gaza in despair about the latest bombings by the Israeli army. And I didn’t even start about all the nature and climate disasters yet.
The stories of Gaza and Israel dominate my (social) media channels, but this as we know isn’t the only war going on right now. You have to look hard for a story about Sudan, but there’s a horrific war too which is not as covered as Israel and the Middle-East, not even close. Apparently millions of people are displaced in Sudan, many killed. But news from the African continent never gets the attention it deserves in our part of the world. And closer to home in Ukraine people get bombed by Russia and vice versa (note: Russians killed by Dutch bombs and weapons), but this war seems to be placed more to the background.
‘Whores for Palestine’
Ah yes, I almost forgot: after Queers for Palestine there’s also a Whores for Palestine now. The photo popped up in my Substack app this morning. If you think it’s a joke, I totally get that, but it probably isn’t as the woman showing the sign and hiding her face under a keffiyeh to make her statement complete, looks bloody serious to me. The photo circulates on social media too. I contacted the journalist to ask about it, he said the photo is taken near Judson Memorial Church in The Village, New York. Lately many Pro-Palestine demonstrations are being held there. Another Chickens for KFC, you probably heard this one before, seem to take over.
Tribal
This whole war has become a tribal fight in the West, with both camps opposing each other: the ‘freedom-fighters’ for Palestine and the I-stand-with-Israel camp. But don’t be mistaken, this is what they want you to believe. Two extremities hating each other. Hate directly imported from the war-zone. Every day to be witnessed in the (social) media. And as soon as I think it can’t be worse, it gets worse.
But, but, but, before you stop reading….There’s hope.
There are people in this world building bridges between what you might think is the impossible. People choosing nuance, empathy, calm and reason over bias, hate, frustration and emotions. It seems impossible in these polarised times we live in, but those people do exist.
Podcast
Yesterday evening I listened to a Dutch podcast called Het Uur (translation: The Hour). It’s a podcast by journalist Pieter van der Wielen having beautiful, heartwarming conversations with authors, artists, journalists, politicians etc. Yesterday there was an episode with Dutch-jewish journalist Natascha van Weezel. The whole hour I was glued to my phone to listen to what she had to say. Van Weezel is known for always looking for dialogue. She made tv programs about Israel and Palestine, talking to both people. She wrote books about it, and now she has a new one: Hoe houd je je hart zacht in tijden van oorlog (freely translated in: How to keep your heart soft in times of war).
Heavy heart
Lately I haven’t heard somebody speak with such compassion, nuance and intelligence when it comes to this rotten war, and I’m not even jewish, Israeli or Palestinian, but I needed this. My heart is so heavy when I see all that is written about this part of our world. When I see the hatred on my X-timeline. A Dutch man who wrote under my post that he hates Israel for the tens of thousands of deaths, many of them women and children, and suggested that I must feel the same — implicating if I didn’t, I must be a person without a heart. So the import of hate from the faraway war-zone has succeeded in his case and unfortunately he isn’t the only one.
In this interview Natascha van Weezel speaks about ‘lichtpuntjes’, about light in the dark. One of those ‘lichtpuntjes’ for her is the story of a woman, an Israeli peace-activist who used to live in one of the kibbutzes near Gaza that sadly has been attacked the 7th of October last year by Hamas-terrorists. This woman, a co-founder of the Women Wage Peace movement who built bridges with Palestinians and drove sick Gazan children to hospitals in Israel, was tragically murdered 7th Oct and in such brutal way that she only could be identified much later. That’s the utterly dark part, nothing light about that. Yet, the other women decided to continue with their peace work. If not, they say, her death is in vain. And there the light comes in.
Forget it
If a woman like her has been slaughtered, you might think: forget about peace, they don’t want it. But none of this. These women don’t give up. Btw: it’s an organisation of Israeli and Palestinian peace-workers.
I find it hard to believe, but people who only want to build bridges and refuse to build walls, they do exist!
These women are the nuanced middle, having eyes on both people. And this appeals so much to me in a time people want you to choose sides; which sides I see getting harder and harder and I refuse to become part of that. Because any of that won’t help the people there. At least, that’s how I see it. That’s how I see it at this moment.
I’m going to buy and read Natascha’s book. I need these stories. I want to keep hope, because times are pretty dark right now. To keep in mind it isn’t easy for this journalist, because she is called a traitor, stupid, naive, a filthy zionist, a murderous jew…
To me she is light in the dark. We need those people.
Here’s the link to the interview if you’d wish to listen too:
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And for those who are interested. My latest Dutch article on Reporters Online published a few days ago:
With Hope,
Con Amor,
Eva
☆evalunes 