Mattan Abergil-Mamane 🕊️🇵🇸 🇮🇱

Tomorrow, October 7, means different things to different people. (This is a long one, but hear me out) To some, it is the day Hamas attacked Israel, a deeply traumatic day for Israelis and so many Jews around the world. An existential trauma that continues with the detention of the remaining hostages, both alive and dead. A fear, a confirmation, that Jews will never be truly safe, even in the West, unless they ensure their own safety—at whatever cost necessary. To others, it was the beginning of the end of Gaza, at least for this generation. Two years of endless horrors. A genocide, according to experts on the topic and international organisations. Two years of being told, in word and in deed, that Palestinian lives are worth less. That they need not be protected by the powerful. That they are dispensable. I am neither Israeli nor Palestinian. I am someone who believes deeply in the value of every human life, and in an international law that is based on that equality. When I reflect on tomorrow, I wonder how we, as human beings, can recover from two years of such trauma, both individually and collectively. From the damage that has been done on so many levels, from the dead, injured, amputated, orphaned and missing, to the collapse of the “rules-based order” as it’s been taught to us. How do we recover from the divides between us, from the dehumanization and tribalization and sheer cruelty we have witnessed, and experienced, these last two years? I wonder if we can meet at a basic starting point that no one life is more valuable than the other. That one trauma cannot be compared or weighed against another. That we need to be kinder. More forgiving. More accepting of a different way to address even the deepest of differences and even, yes, conflicts. Holding on to the hope that the answer is “yes, we can meet there” is what keeps total despair at bay. Not always, but most of the time. I will be thinking of everyone who is feeling trauma and pain tomorrow, and I desperately wish for a day when that pain is no longer inflicted on you so unforgivingly.