Last week, I wrote about how my experiences of kibbutz life shaped my views on the seemingly intractable Israel-Gaza crisis. This week, I received heartbreaking news. Two grandchildren of Eva Chiel, the extraordinary human dynamo who ran the Kibbutz Sarid volunteer programme, were among those killed at the infamous Nova desert music festival.
Last weekend, some of the Chiel family had hoped that Noa, 27, a neuroscience student, and Gidi, 24, who organised events to bring international artists to Israel, would be spared. Eva, 75, the daughter of parents who survived the Holocaust horrors of Bergen Belsen, was more fatalistic. She told CNN that “they were either dead or they’re in Gaza. I’m not very hopeful”.
On consecutive days last week, the siblings were pronounced dead. Their funeral was last Wednesday. Although I have not heard from Eva for years, I now have just one degree of separation from these tragic events. Who knows if I will discover more, probably on the Israeli side? Or will there be a link to someone who has been killed or displaced in Gaza: more likely the case if I was teaching at my two previous schools. My question is: do we care if we are not personally affected?
I am writing from Boston, Massachusetts, where I have been visiting my family, discussing the Celtics and Taylor Swift. We’ve been here during President Biden’s whirlwind visit to Israel. It led the news – that is, if you choose to watch mainstream news. Most people we know here do not. Plus, they are far more engaged with the ongoing humiliating national failure to elect a new speaker for the House of Representatives, the third most powerful role in America.
We did get physically caught up in two demonstrations here. In this liberal East Coast city, there are 250,000 Jews and 80,000 Muslims. The first demonstration saw thousands of pro-Palestinians march to the Israeli consulate, the second was a smaller Jewish-Palestinian affair calling for peace. Earlier last week, we had missed a third demo: this time thousands of pro-Israelis protesting against the Hamas attacks.
My relatives here are not talking about any of this. A former military family, they are far more preoccupied with whether that House speaker impasse will lead to a government shutdown and potentially not paying federal salaries. Like I said, degrees of separation. However, all of us have noticed one thing: there’s been scarcely a minute of airtime devoted to the Ukraine conflict. It is President Zelensky’s worst nightmare: Western war fatigue.
This works both ways. The devastated, bereft Chiel family will not be thinking much about Ukraine, nor will those thousands of terrified Gazans dreading the Israeli army’s invasion. There is so much to care about that the mainstream news can be overwhelming. It is easier to hide away in sports and celebrity. Why shouldn’t we? The answer lies in the famous Martin Niemöller quotation: “First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out…”
The only way to achieve peace is to keep drawing attention to conflict and its root causes and push for solutions. The only way for any of these horrific deaths to make sense is if peace comes belatedly. That peace seems a distant dream. And, it’s too late for young Noa and Gidi Chiel. May their memories be a blessing.