“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Since October 7th, Israel has killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza. 24,000 of those were women. 14,000 were children. Obviously, most were civilians.
The IDF has also created 17,000 orphans. All this death and destruction has been caused by U.S.-made weapons, by a nation that calls itself The Jewish State, in the name of Judaism and Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, I see the Facebook posts of my Jewish friends. Day after day, they compare notes about their favorite albums, the hot new movie, the latest series. They take pictures of fruits. They post selfies. They make pithy comments about celebrities, the U.S. elections, fictional characters on TV. They vent their outrage that "Barbie" wasn't nominated for more Oscars.
I see no mention, no opinion, no admission of what is going on in Israel/Palestine.
It's impossible that they're all unaware of it. When Hamas invaded Israel on October 7th, some of them wrote about the tragic deaths of almost 1,200 people killed in Israel, including 38 children.
But since then, they have had nothing to say about 34,000 dead Palestinians; 24,000 women, 14,000 of them children. Nothing to say about the mass murders at hospitals. Nothing to say about the forced starvation that has been taking place for months. Nothing about the hundreds of murders of journalists, doctors, ambulance drivers, humanitarian workers... all in our name.
It is every person's right to decide what to share on social media, but nearly none of the Jews I know have said
one
damn
thing
about it since then. I don't know why they don't. We are not close and I'm not gonna ask them.
But I wonder about the reasons.
Maybe they actually support -- fully or partially -- what Israel is doing in Gaza. These people often post only about the Israeli hostages and the Israeli death toll on October 7th, but never about the Palestinians. I have spoken to a couple acquaintances who fit this category.
I'm also aware of a handful of Jewish friends and acquaintances who think like me: that what Israel is doing in Gaza is a horrendous genocide that must be stopped. But it's just a handful.
And the rest say nothing. They have nothing to say about 34,000 dead, over 70,000 wounded, 14,000 dead kids, 17,000 orphaned kids. 80% of a population who is homeless, where every bit of infrastructure necessary to live have been destroyed.
Why do they say nothing? As every day brings fresh atrocities that stretch the boundaries of belief --- again, tied to them, their religion, their dead ancestors, their name -- how do they continue to fill the space with babble about TeeVee and selfies and food porn?
I can only speculate. Maybe, in the current McCarthyite political climate of the U.S. and U.K., which is quick to slander folks who stand up for Palestinians as "anti-semitic" and punish them in any way possible, and they are afraid of professional repercussions. Look at the vicious lies and smears against the Oscar-winning Jewish director of "The Zone of Interest", Jonathan Glazer, when he made a speech at the Oscars ceremony calling out Israel for prostituting his religion to mass-murder Palestinians.
Maybe they're afraid of social repercussions. The chance of alienating or being shunned by other Jewish friends or family members is real; I know from experience. Maybe the issue triggers personal trauma for them.
Perhaps they think it's something far away that has nothing to do with them. (But Taylor Swift does?) Or maybe they think they can't do anything about it, so why mention it?
Or maybe they just don't really care?
I have no way to know. But seeing these people blithely go on with their lives when more than 34,000 people, 14,000 of them children, have been slaughtered in 6 months with their money, by their country, in the name of their religion, their identity...it shocks me. It starts to look obscene.
Do these people have blood in their veins? I feel I have more in common with the most bloodthirsty Zionists than these people. At least Zionists believe in something, wrongheaded as it is. What do these other people believe in?
As Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, featured in an earlier post, demanded of his "on the fence" Jewish interviewer: WHERE ARE YOU?
If you are one of these people, I would really like to know. So now, I am going say perhaps the most deluded thing I've ever said:
Leave a comment.
Header photo: Stas Knop