October 7, 2023 | “The logic of violence cannot be overcome from within”

An Israeli soldier and a religious Jewish man pray at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. Photo: AFP/Fadel Senna October 7, 2023 was a Saturday, Shabbat and therefore a holiday. Where were you when the attack began?

With my family in our apartment in Tel Aviv. We didn't wake up at all when the first siren sounded at around 6:30 a.m., and even after that we didn't notice anything unusual. Shabbat and public holidays are also generally very quiet in Tel Aviv. At breakfast we turned on the radio, the special report was already on, but it only came in dribs and drabs: an incident on the border with the Gaza Strip, very little information. Anyone who lives in Israel is familiar with such “security incidents”. It was only when I saw pictures on news portals from Ofakim, about 30 kilometers east of Gaza, that I realized that something was different and particularly violent: Israelis were lying tied up on their stomachs next to a pool. As the morning progressed, it was obvious that the situation had spiraled out of control. We didn't leave the house all day with our two children, then five and one.

What went through your mind as the circumstances became clearer?

First of all, this was undoubtedly a scary situation for us as a family and we had to think about how to explain what was happening to our children. These were hours of apparent loss of control, and it was not clear until a certain point on October 7 whether attackers would also come towards Tel Aviv. Added to this were the multiple missile alarms. At the same time, as a politically minded person, it quickly became clear to me that this would not be without a destructive Israeli reaction. My concern therefore very soon turned to the people in the Gaza Strip and my Palestinian colleagues in the office who have family there.

Then the decision was made, you had to leave the country...

Yes, on October 8th. We still have flights to Germany for October 9th. The foundation ordered us back, we had to organize it ourselves, because as delegates from a political foundation we are not covered by the German embassy's evacuation protocols. It was a very painful decision, we had only been on site for almost seven months, and I had to leave my team in Tel Aviv for the time being. But it was a decision for my children and our family, and I still believe it was the right one to this day. We then spent three months in Berlin – that was also a very difficult time on all levels.

Have you considered staying in Germany?

The departure was initially temporary; giving up his position was not seriously on the cards. When it became apparent that the situation was not in danger of spreading regionally for the time being, we decided to return in December. The job was very important to me and it seemed like a responsible, albeit delicate, decision to us as a family at the time. We returned in January 2024 and were on site until mid-2025.

How has this time changed you personally?

I still have to figure that out. My parents moved to Germany from Israel in the late 80s because they didn't want to send their children to the army. They were both born in 1948 with different family migration biographies and belonged to the left-wing Zionist establishment. However, at the latest after the massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon in 1982, they were no longer able to identify with the state. Thanks to at least annual family visits, I knew the place and the language since I was a child, and this job was the chance to live there, be closer to my family and, above all, do something politically useful. At the same time, I had no illusions about what kind of society I would be joining. Nevertheless, the force of hatred and dehumanization, the willingness to tolerate brutal methods while continuing to live everyday life, has always taken a toll on me.

In a way, perhaps I miss something that we never had there and could never have had there in this context: an everyday life beyond dehumanization and violence. Nevertheless, I experienced these years from a very privileged perspective, not comparable to what my Palestinian colleagues or even many marginalized Jewish Israelis experience. Professionally, these were incredibly intense years with an inspiring Jewish-Palestinian team. We got through this time together. I learned a lot about the value of practical Jewish-Palestinian solidarity and the importance of non-violent co-resistance. Personally, there was, on the one hand, a process of alienation and a feeling of being rejected, but also moments in everyday life in which I felt at home there because of my biographical background. Many post-migrant children know this: you feel like you belong and at the same time you are always the other. I've been back in Berlin for good since September and need some distance and time to process it all.

How has Israeli society changed during this time?

I don't even know if she has changed fundamentally. I think processes have accelerated above all, especially the dehumanization of Palestinians. It was fed by the trauma of October 7th, which was repeated on a constant loop in the media. The hostage issue was open for a long time; 251 people, women and children were held hostage by Hamas and militant groups. Combined with the army's campaign of revenge, this brought Jewish-Israeli society almost completely in line with the genocide in the Gaza Strip in the first months of 2024. There was great unity across camps - from Netanyahu opponents to Netanyahu supporters - and the idea that there are no innocents in Gaza.

Did the Arab Israelis also feel this?

Yes, we have experienced an unprecedented wave of repression against Palestinian citizens of Israel: arbitrary arrests for solidarity posts, bans on demonstrations, humiliation and verbal violence against Palestinian politicians in the Knesset. They were portrayed as a “fifth column,” which massively increased exclusion and fear. Most Palestinians in Israel have relatives in Gaza, because most of the residents of the Gaza Strip were expelled from what is now Israel in 1948.

Is it true that the war images from Gaza were hardly shown in the Israeli media?

We are dealing with an immense failure of the Israeli media. They are part of the militaristic, national mission. The images from Gaza came almost entirely from soldiers' cameras and army footage: soldiers running and shooting, residential areas destroyed, but no Palestinians. The role of the media is central to every genocide because it provides the images and sound behind which those who do not want to look or listen can hide. At the same time, it was possible to obtain information even though the government had banned Al-Jazeera. This was done via social media and media like the Palestinian-Israeli magazine +972, which we work with. I remember relatives who are not left-wing at all and said: What we are doing in Gaza is unforgivable. But the vast majority of Jewish Israelis did not want and do not want to see it. In the first few months, the Israeli news from left-liberal to right agreed on one message: Gaza must be destroyed.

You used the term “genocide” quite naturally. How is it in Israel?

The human rights organization B'Tselem published a report in the summer of 2025 in which it spoke of a genocide; the online investigative publications “+972 Magazine” and “Local Call” use the term in Hebrew publications. Members of the left-wing Hadash party alliance such as Ofer Cassif have used it. From the end of 2023, radical activists stood in squares in Tel Aviv with “Stop the Genocide” signs, but in English, i.e. for a foreign audience, and that remained very small. The grassroots movement Standing Together, which brings Palestinians and Jewish Israelis together, still does not do this in the Hebrew context. I think many in the anti-war camp would personally embrace the term, but for strategic reasons they don't use it because it triggers an aggressive backlash among many Israelis and then no longer reaches them. Many Israelis describe October 7th as genocidal, and anything beyond that is considered self-defense. There is nothing to be gained politically with the term in Israel.

In the documentary »NAZA«, which won an award at the Venice Film Festival, the camera offers a look into the living rooms of the population, who continue their lives during the war seemingly unaffected. Is that disinterest?

Just because most people didn't rebel or didn't want to see it, doesn't mean they were okay. But the awareness that there is an alternative is so low that it is accepted or supported - coupled with the assumption described above that there are no innocent people in Gaza. A powerlessness develops, an apathy, coupled with exhaustion, reinforced by constant reporting that suggests: There is no other choice, we have to wage war, otherwise we will perish. Netanyahu recently addressed this in front of the UN General Assembly with his brother's quote before the Six-Day War: "We have no other choice." In doing so, he reflects a mood that is representative of most Israelis, as hated as he is in parts of the population.

Has the militarization of society increased in the last three years?

I see a continuum and amplification. By October 6, 2023, many reservists threatened to no longer report for duty because of the so-called judicial reform, and hundreds of thousands took to the streets against the government every week, without, however, establishing the connection between occupation policy and authoritarian developments at home. However, after October 7th, this trend came to an abrupt end. The military plays a crucial role in the lives of many Israelis: careers depend on whether one was in the military. Objectors can go to prison and are considered traitors. This is the only way to explain why orders are followed like this. In the film »NAZA« a soldier says: If we question the system, everything collapses.

Gil Shohat was born and grew up in Bonn in 1988 as the son of Israeli parents. He studied history and political science in Munich, Exeter and Berlin and worked, among other things, on anti-colonial activism in London from the 1930s to 1950s. He also regularly publishes and speaks on the current German culture of remembrance, the relationship between anti-Semitism and racism, and the manifestations of the situation in Israel and Palestine in Germany. From March 2023 to August 2026 he headed the Israel office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Tel Aviv. Since September 2026 he has been a consultant for West Asia at the Center for International Dialogue of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Berlin.

When arming civilians. At the initiative of Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gwir, around 100,000 Israelis obtained gun licenses after October 7th. Since our return in January 2024, I can hardly remember a visit to the playground without seeing an armed father. Soldiers sit on the train with machine guns on their knees, but normal high-tech employees also carry weapons. So we are dealing with hundreds of thousands of armed civilians, most of whom are politically right-wing.

Could reservists have refused?

Yes, they could have said: I'm not taking part. Some people did that at some point, sometimes with prison sentences. With larger numbers, the state would have had to use many more resources to force them to serve in the war.

But are the external threats to Israel just imaginary? Iran in particular is mentioned again and again. How do you see that?

There was a demonstrable downsizing of Iran's nuclear program during the era of the Obama nuclear agreement, and Netanyahu strongly opposed this agreement, including in a speech to the US Congress. He has cultivated the image of an existential threat for years, even though Israel itself is an unofficial but, according to experts, clear nuclear power. This creates fear and a constant readiness for permanent war. At the same time, the danger is not completely illusory: Iran can hit Israel severely, more than Hezbollah or Hamas - with the exception of October 7, 2023. We experienced this in June 2025 and March 2026 in response to Israel's attack against Iran, which violated international law. The US and Israel's war of aggression against Iran in the spring of 2026 also met with widespread support for weeks, even though most people had to go to shelters three or four times a day. It is seen as existentially necessary, and the idea of ​​a “new order in the Middle East” extends to the liberal camp.

They were also in Israel in June 2025, during the war against Iran. How did you and your family experience this war and the omnipresent weapons?

A certain normalization inevitably took place during our stay, although we were always aware of how dangerous this normality is. At a holiday dinner, a relative in civilian clothes put his machine gun on the ground and said: Just a moment, I'm going to get some food. This normality of violence has triggered something in all of us. The June War came relatively unexpectedly. At three in the morning my son woke me up: siren. The air alarm immediately created a feeling of threat, but Israel had attacked Iran and not the other way around. After a week of sometimes very loud impacts, we traveled overland to Jordan and then on to Germany. There was a missile alarm on the way and a direct hit 300 meters away.

Yes, we have been back in Berlin as a family since then. I have been there several times over the last year and otherwise managed the office from Berlin due to the ongoing crisis. It then became clear relatively quickly that we would not be returning and that, with a heavy heart, I would no longer be able to manage the office. Working with our local political and civil society partners as well as with our Jewish-Palestinian team was one of the most empowering things that I was able to experience in my professional life but also personally. I am therefore grateful to everyone who is working locally for a future beyond Israeli domination over the Palestinians for their cooperation over the last three and a half years and am glad that our work in Israel will now continue under my successor Shaked Spier.

A mural in Tel Aviv entitled "RUN" by artist Alexsandro Palombo shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) and politician Gadi Eisenkot, wearing bulletproof vests and armed with batons, pursuing Bart Simpson, who is depicted as a young Hamas fighter. Photo: AFP/Jack Guez The parliamentary elections are on October 27th. What to expect?

There is a very intense election campaign, many movements are coming together. The outcome is very unclear. There could be a stalemate again, like in 2018 to 2021, in which neither the Netanyahu bloc nor the opposition bloc has a majority and the Arab parties would tip the scales, but neither side wants to form a coalition with them. Then there is a threat of new elections. Mobilization is high, including abroad: Israelis residing abroad, especially in the United States, are organizing campaigns to come to vote, which is a thorn in the side of the government. I worry about what happens after the election. The armed civilians are mostly close to the right, and if there is a majority against Netanyahu, the question is how his supporters will react and whether he will claim election fraud.

Can the elections change nothing? Don't you see a left-wing perspective?

There is no prospect of pacification in Israel. The Standing Together movement gave rise to a party that withdrew its candidacy because it was unable to mobilize sufficiently to overcome the 3.25 percent hurdle. The Palestinian parties, including the communist Hadash, are fighting for survival. They were excluded by the electoral commission, now the Supreme Court is deciding. In the opposition camp there are almost no voices for left-wing politics in the sense of equality, peace and anti-militarism. It's about whether you are for or against Netanyahu and about saving Israel's image abroad, not about steps towards a pacified region.

Multiple sources report that Netanyahu was warned before October 7th. Does this play a role in the election campaign?

In the anti-Netanyahu camp, definitely. The demand for a state commission of inquiry has been long-standing, the government has blocked it, and the new reports are being read as evidence of why. If they come from reputable media companies, there is no reason to dismiss them as constructed. It is also certain that the publication time is related to the election. It is an attempt to delegitimize Netanyahu in the field of security, which he has always presented as his core competence and which was fundamentally broken on October 7th. Since October 2023 we have seen an unleashed Netanyahu, whereas previously he was accused of not taking decisive enough military action. He will portray this as a conspiracy and convince his followers. It is an election against Netanyahu, and the left-wing opposition also wants to overthrow him. Their first goal is to vote out his partly fascist government, everything else comes after that.

How do you assess Gadi Eisenkot, the ex-general who is seen as a political alternative?

He certainly has a chance, especially because he is not Netanyahu and is the antithesis of his personality. As a former commander in chief of the army, he has a high level of legitimacy among large parts of the population, and the fact that he lost his son and a nephew in the war reinforces this. People believe him for his commitment to the security of the country. The other candidates don't have the same numbers in the polls, so it comes down to him in the opposition camp.

When does the war end? Trump's "peace plan" is on the table.

Israeli society has become accustomed to a permanent state of war and escalation. This logic of violence cannot be overcome from within alone, but only in combination with massive international pressure and consequences for lasting actions that violate international law.

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