Phalapoem editor, 07/10/25
After nearly two years of relentless Israeli bombardment, genocide, siege, and starvation in Gaza, much of Israeli society and media appear trapped in a bubble of selective empathy. News outlets and public discourse remain overwhelmingly focused on the pain of Israeli hostages and fallen soldiers, while the unimaginable suffering of millions of Palestinians just across the border is reduced to background noise, if mentioned at all.
This selective moral vision is not accidental. It reflects years of dehumanization and separation, reinforced by a media system that rarely portrays Palestinians as equal human beings. As Gaza endures a humanitarian collapse with entire families wiped out, hospitals destroyed, and children dying from malnutrition, many Israelis consume a narrative centered solely on national trauma and military resilience. The silence about Palestinian lives is not just omission; it is a moral failure.
The phrase “Never again” , born from the world’s vow to prevent atrocities was meant to protect all peoples from mass suffering. Yet, for many observers, it now seems that this universal lesson has been reshaped into a narrow, tribal slogan. The deep historical context of this conflict dating back more than seven decades to the dispossession, ethnic cleansing and killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces largely erased from mainstream Israeli memory. The violence did not begin on October 7, 2023, nor will it end with another military victory speech.
Real justice requires confronting uncomfortable truths: that the same society demanding empathy for its captives often denies empathy to those it holds captive. True safety for Israelis will never come from the destruction of Gaza, but from a shared recognition of Palestinian humanity and a reckoning with history that has too long been denied.
Until that happens, Israel risks losing not only its moral compass but also the possibility of coexistence and peace.