Category: Israel

Vigil number 153


Well attended vigil

Things seem to be changing with some tentative hopes for the future. The Israeli elections denied Netanyahu a majority and negotiations are underway to form some kind of coalition. The Arab parties did well and may have some kind of decisive influence on the result.

In America, President Trump and the Republicans received what some are calling a rout and both Congress and the Senate will have Democratic majorities. This will put some curbs on the President’s ability to act but he is still free to pursue foreign adventures.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the week was the announcement that the US is ending its aid to Israel at the end of this year. President Trump said ‘they don’t need it’ as they were now a ‘successful country’. He said this had been discussed and agreed with Netanyahu at his recent visit to the White House. This aid amounts to $3.3bn annually and has enabled the state to become a regional defence superpower. The argument now is that they have developed significant defence capabilities so are no longer in need of the aid. In a decade they have received $38bn.

Vigil
People holding signs during a nighttime vigil for justice and peace in the Middle East on a town street.

Around 30 turned out for the vigil (pictured). Another key event which took place last week was the Supreme Court appeal concerning Palestine Action. They were declared to be a terrorist organisation by Yvette Cooper when she was Home Secretary partly because they were lumped in with some unpleasant organisations, Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement. There are reports that many Labour MPs are expressing misgivings about the decision and how they were obliged, and whipped, to support it. There is no question that the violence members committed at the Elbit Systems factory was deplorable and the attack on the police officer indefensible. But the question is: does this make them a terrorist organisation? Amnesty, Liberty and others think not. The Court is deliberating its decision now.

Person holding a candle and sign reading “Apartheid Before Our Eyes,” describing Palestinian imprisonment, military courts, and the death penalty.

Sources: Politico, the Observer

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Pictures: [top] Salisbury Amnesty, [lower] courtesy of Peter Gloyns

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Latest Campaign Against Arms Trade newsletter


Issue No 278 of CAAT news details latest activities of this trade

November 2026

We give coverage to this newsletter from CAAT because of the significance of the arms industry in connection with our political process and for human rights world wide. These are:

  • The industry is one of the few in the UK of any size which is successful internationally and hence creates many jobs. Its role in our economy is therefore significant with a number of marginal seats dependent on the votes of those who work in it.
  • It mounts a huge lobbying effort in parliament. An Israeli firm is back in business lobbying parliamentarians. There is growing concern at the rapid growth and scale of the lobbying (not just from arms firms) and the effects it has on the political process. Human rights groups cannot match the funding arms firms can deploy.
  • To promote the industry, rules have been softened to enable arms to be sold more widely. Claims of ‘robust’ export controls are a falsehood with more and more open licenses being agreed. British weapons have been deployed in Yemen, Gaza and Sudan causing widespread destruction, civilian deaths and injury and the destruction of schools, hospitals, mosques and other buildings.
  • The ‘revolving door‘ corruption sees hundreds of senior military staff, civil servants and parliamentarians accepting well paid directorships and consultancies after their retirement. Controls on this activity are weak.
  • Taken together, the arms industry is a well-funded and highly organised tail wagging a weak political dog. Moral scruples and the misery their products inflict on those at the receiving end do not seem to trouble them or the parliamentarians who are supposedly there to oversee the industry. We must never forget it is women and children who are so often those at the receiving end of this trade, losing lives, limbs or sight in the pursuit of profit.
A nighttime urban scene featuring a revolving door with two businessmen carrying briefcases, surrounded by flying documents, in front of a large building.
Current issue

The current issue covers the following aspects of the trade:

Saudi

In the 7 year war in Yemen, 377, 000 were killed by the coalition. The war involved the indiscriminate attack on schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure. To maximise deaths, weddings and funerals were attacked where numbers were known to gather. Between 6 and 7 thousand BAE employees aided the Saudis. CAAT makes clear the UK and the RAF are complicit in these atrocities.

BAE Systems have been fined a total of $36m for breaching US arms export regulations by selling equipment to among others, China.

Israel

There was initial welcome (including on this site) for the new Foreign Secretary’s decision to hold Israel to account for genocide, apartheid and occupation [of Gaza]. However, they point out, on the crucial question of arms sales to the country, there is far less to applaud. A Labour minister reported in September that no licenses have been suspended. The government it says ‘wants to uphold international law so long as it is not too inconvenient for the arms industry and the UK’s relations with the US‘.

The attitude of the Burnham government towards the industry is not encouraging they point out. Appointments include Jonathan Reynolds who in a previous post was responsible for the F-35 carve-out. We noted above that nothing material has happened about arms sales to Israel. His chief of staff is James Purnell who was chair of Labour Friends of Israel and was chief executive of Flint Global a lobbyist for (you guessed it) arms firms and oil companies.

Dead Letter

This is a report CAAT have produced which we covered in a previous post. In essence the report describes government’s attempts to obfuscate the rules to enable arms sales to continue to regimes despite the killing of innocent people.

Other matters are covered including continuing involvement in the war in Sudan. The essential issue is that the interests of the industry seem to overcome all other considerations. Britain is complicit in some dreadful humanitarian crimes and the killing of thousands with the only thing that seems to matter is that arms sales keep on rolling. Claims by various ministers that things might change look unconvincing based on the background of some of those appointed into key government positions and their statements which turn out to be misleading or plain wrong.

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UK government signals change re: Israel

Abstract architectural landscape sketch with grids, terrain, and structural lines

New Foreign Secretary indicates tougher approach to new settlements

September 2026

Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary has stated in the Commons that the government is prepared to adopt a tougher approach to the proposed new E1 settlement on the West Bank. This highly contentious development is particularly important because it splits the area into two parts thus making any prospect of a viable Palestinian state near impossible.

Israel has just issued tenders for the development of part of the project consisting of around 1,200 homes covering some 4.5 sq miles. Miliband joins a number of other states criticising Israel including Germany which has up to now, been a firm supporter. The UK has joined around 20 other countries and the European Union claiming the development to be unacceptable.

Government ministers have been under increasing pressure to take a firmer stance in relation to Israel. Andy Burnham has apologised for the previous stance of the Labour government. The ever increasing settler violence as well as the destruction of great swathes of Gaza is becoming harder to ignore politically. The encroachment is increasing all the time with over 60% of the land under Israeli control. There are now 2 million Palestinians living in an area of 150 sq km. This is approximately the same area as Havant in Hampshire which has a population of 127,000.

The Israeli embassy has referred to previous comments by the Ambassador saying ‘If Britain acts against the state of Israel, the state of Israel will act against Britain. We have the tools.” The Jewish Chronicle repeated this warning.

Erasure

Amira Hass, writing in the Ha’aretz newspaper (September 1st) quoting the opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot says:

“Erasure is the nightmare solution being written into reality every day. Knesset laws, politicians’ declarations, military orders, school textbooks and the holy real estate battalions operating in Gaza, the West Bank and the Negev all work, together and separately, to advance this “solution” diligently and without fear of international condemnation.”

Some argue that genocide, and the elimination of all Palestinians from Israel, has always been the policy of the government. As the Jewish writer Omar Bartov writes:

” […] for the past two years Israel has engaged in a genocidal operation in Gaza and all the indications are this was part of an intentional policy consistent with political and military rhetoric meant to “encourage” Palestinians to leave the Strip altogether (p 190)” [1]

The theme of the elimination of all Palestinians is amply described in the Jewish academic Ilan Pappe’s book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine [2]. He notes that right from the start, Ben-Gurion led the Zionist movement to achieve ‘absolute Jewish domination’ of Palestine (p23 ff).

The grim toll of death continues in Gaza with the death toll now put at over 73,000, including 12,500 women, over 20,000 children and 174,500 injured.

The change in stance by the UK government is welcome. As the Ha’aretz article notes, the overwhelming military power possessed by Israel courtesy of the USA, has led it to pursue violent and military solutions. We are rapidly approaching the horrific October 7th massacre with no end of hostilities in sight.

Vigil

Vigils will continue in Salisbury and the next is this Saturday 5th September at 5pm for half an hour. The local MP Mr John Glen has never attended or acknowledged the vigils and is a proud member of the Conservative Friends of Israel group.

[1] Israel: What Went Wrong, Omar Bartov, 2026, Fern Press

[2] The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan Pappe, 2006 (first published), One World

Sources: Guardian, Middle East Eye, Ha’aretz, Jewish Chronicle. Image created by AI.

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Good response to our 143rd vigil


We still turn out each week as the need is still there
Proposal to make a film
August 2026

One hundred and forty three vigils for peace in the Middle East supported by around 30 people yesterday (29 August). The photo shows one of our number standing on the traffic island and there were around 35 ‘honks’.

There has been some coverage of the situation in Gaza last week with reports on the yellow line which is slowly creeping across the territory forcing the Palestinians into a smaller and smaller area. According to the LA Times it is now 64% of Gaza. Nearly all the cultivable land has now been seized. According to recent estimates, the death toll is now over 73,000 and continuing despite the ceasefire. 174,000 have been injured. Around 1,300 have been killed since the ‘ceasefire’ and 4,361 injured. Settler violence has intensified in the West Bank.

We still await government action concerning our relations with Israel following the election of Andy Burnham as prime minister who apologised for the government’s stance in July. Although this apology was welcomed, few in the media noted that Burnham is a member of Labour Friends of Israel. On the web site Track Israel Lobbying Mr Burnham heads the page Hall of Shame as having received over £200,000.

The total received by MPs from Israeli organisations is a massive £1,574,262 (updated this month). It is reasonable to ask how independent are our members of parliament and to what extent are they representing the interests of those people whom they purport to represent when they are in receipt of such largesse?

Film

We are considering making a short film to be called ‘Because …’ which will have brief interviews with some of those who attend these vigils. We will be carrying out the interviews over the next few Saturdays. Anyone reading this who attends is willing to volunteer. The aim is for people to say they come to the vigils because … and to give their reasons.

We note once again that there has been no sign of the local MP Mr John Glen who is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel group (see above) and has never mentioned them in his weekly column in the Salisbury Journal.

Photo: courtesy of Peter Gloyns.

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Vigil No. 142


Nearly 30 attend the latest vigil in Salisbury

August 2026

The vigils continue and the 142nd was held yesterday in the Market Place, Salisbury. Recognition was good with around 100 or so seeming to take some kind of note of our presence. It’s quite a while now since we have had any serious criticism of our action.

There may be signs that things are changing on the political front. The new prime minister seems aware of the damage done by Sir Keir Starmer’s almost blinkered approach to Israel. Starmer was determined he said to ‘root out anti-Semitism from the party’ and claimed he had done so in his final PMQ. ‘Rooting it out’ was a fine objective but giving Israel almost unqualified support despite their atrocious actions in Gaza, and now the West Bank, quite another. The violence has increased markedly in the last few months with the IDF or Israeli police doing very little to stop it. Leaders of the party are fully behind the actions. Thirteen new settlements have been approved and they are designed to make any hope of a coherent Palestinian state impossible.

Andy Burnham is facing demands at next month’s party conference to declare Israel’s actions in Gaza to be genocide which he is reported to be reluctant to do. At his inauguration it appeared he understood the immense harm done by the government’s one-sided support. We shall have to see if words are turned in action.

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Another vigil and is the mood changing in the US?


Latest vigil – No 141 – is well attended

August 2026

Around 35 attended the latest vigil held in Salisbury’s market place and it is remarkable that they continue week after week. As we have said before, there is a mixture of people who come every week and those who turn up occasionally. Recognition is high and news of the terrible events in the region continue to appear on our screens and in the media.

The rising tide of settler violence achieved significant coverage last week even from the BBC which is extremely nervous of covering news from the area for familiar reasons. We noted a shift in attitudes in America in our last post and a forthright criticism by Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador, calling the settlers ‘Israeli terrorists’. This from a Zionist and Israeli apologist. What was important was not just the comment itself but that he felt able to make them.

Once again we note the absence of the Salisbury MP Mr John Glen who has never attended a vigil or ever mentioned them in his weekly column in the Salisbury Journal. 141 weeks of silence is a powerful message. He is a member of Conservative Friends of Israel along with around 140 other MPs.

Israeli support for violence and the lack of healthcare for Palestinians claimed

A distressing report in Haaretz discusses the attitude of many Israelis towards Palestinians and particularly their health care or rather lack of it. They report:

“The majority of Israel’s Jewish public supports the worsening conditions of Palestinian patients, caused by their inability to receive necessary treatments. This isn’t the finding of any pollster – no one includes in their surveys a question like, “Do you support the elimination of Palestinian public healthcare?

“Yet this conclusion is inevitable, considering the fact that Israel’s Ministry of Finance continues unimpeded to steal the Palestinian Authority’s income from taxes and customs. Those revenues are meant for medical treatments, medications, medical staff salaries and the maintenance and development of hospitals and clinics”.

The article describes the lack of condemnation by a wide range of Israeli organisations and the writer concludes:

“[…] With great pain, you have to conclude that, in the eyes of too many Jews in Israel, also the slow killing of Palestinians, simply because they are Palestinians, is a legitimate policy.”

Public opinion in Israel is important especially with elections imminent. The hard right politicians who support the destruction of Gaza, the increasing West Bank settler violence and the prevention of health care described in the article, are in the ascendant. If the article is right, it does not look as though there will be much in the way of pressure to change the political climate.

Photo: Courtesy of Peter Gloyns

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Are American attitudes towards Israel changing?


Evidence that young Americans attitudes to Israel are changing

August 2026

Over the past few days (12th & 13th August) there has been a number of reports on BBC radio and TV and on Channel 4 concerning the latest violent actions by settlers in the village of Qusra on the West Bank. Palestinian families have been attacked by large groups of settlers and some have been besieged in their homes. The Israeli army is on the scene but is unable or unwilling to do more than make ineffectual efforts to curb the violence. There is footage of homes being trashed by the settlers.

In one way, this is not unusual. Settler violence against Palestinians has been a feature of the past few years with the IDF and Israel police doing nothing to stop it. But something changed with this attack. Firstly, it has received extensive coverage as noted with packages of 10 or 15 minutes devoted to the violence. More significantly, Mike Huckabee described the actions as ‘a horrific act of terror’ and those perpetrators as ‘Israeli terrorists’. Huckabee is the US Ambassador and a staunch supporter of Israel. The question is therefore: is there a change in the US attitude to Israel? Will the carte blanche support continue?

Changing American attitudes

The Pew Research Center has produced evidence which seems to record a shift in opinion. They and other commentators suggest that 60% of Americans have a less favourable view of Israel now compared with previously. Among young people especially, there are strong negative views about Netanyahu. There is a divide in the opinion with the young having negative views and older people maintaining their loyalty.

The Institute for Global Affairs suggest that more Americans are seeing Israel as a liability. Many want the flow of arms to be reduced or constrained. American help for Israel has been open ended and has amounted to around $300bn to date. Increasingly, they don’t see Israel as ‘worth a war’.

For UK people, a major factor has been the destruction and killings which have taken place in Gaza. For Americans, it has been Iran and the feeling that the US was embroiled in an expensive project at the behest of Israel. Violence on the West Bank has not gone down well. Americans are seeing the effects in the price of gas (petrol) and other commodities because of the blockade of the Straight of Hormuz. There is a view that Israel is no longer seen as a ‘pioneer democracy’ but more of an ‘oppressive state’.

It is claimed that that the powerful AIPAC organisation – one of the most powerful in the States – has a ‘stranglehold’ over Congress. They have significant contacts and are known to give support to politicians early in their careers. As in the UK, members are taken on carefully curated tours of Israel. They spent $100m to try and influence recent elections.

Problems

Despite the spending and efforts to control the debate and neutralise critics, Americans can see the results on their screens which no amount of sanitising can hide. In the Senate the numbers of Senators calling for restrictions on arms being sent to Israel is increasing.

The biggest group of supporters is from American Evangelicals who see that part of the world in Biblical terms. They see it also in terms of the second coming. They are a key part of the electorate and are very influential.

A problem however with pointing at AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is that it casts Israel, and more particularly Jews, as ‘having control’, a sensitive issue. This simply adds to the anti-Semitic claims made by Israel about any or all people who criticise them. It has an effect on critics.

Is American opinion going to change and will that bring about a re-calibration of their support to Israel? Some observers think it is a while off yet. Although younger Americans are no longer uncritical supporters, their influence is not yet great but it is growing. That Mike Huckabee spoke out in such terms is significant, not just the words themselves but that he felt able to utter them. All in all, the Israeli government is likely to be concerned at the changing mood towards them.

We must hope that a change will happen for the sake of the thousands who suffer in Gaza and the instability in Lebanon. The ceaseless violence will not ultimately help Israel. To cede control to thugs going out and terrorising Palestinians while your army and police stand by is no way for a civilised state to behave. The settlers know they have support for their actions from the highest level of government.

Sources: Channel 4 News (and a podcast); Pew Research Center; Al Jazeera; BBC; Christian Science Monitor; Institute for Global Affairs; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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Risks of University Partnerships with Arms Firms and Israel


Report by Southampton University into tensions and risks in dealing with Israel and Palestine

August 2026

The latest edition of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s News (Issue 277, Summer 2026) contains an article discussing links with universities and arms companies in the context of relations with Israel and Palestine. The report Aligning Policy with Practice: Tensions and Risks in the Context of Israel and Palestine, February 2026 analyses these tensions in relation to Southampton but it is clear the issues apply to many universities in the UK. The full report can be accessed here. It is the product of work carried out by the Palestinian Solidarity Network in the University (pictured) and the lead author is Irene Ruiz Espejo.

Essentially, the report analyses the various principles which the University has concerning transparency, sustainability, ethics and EDI and matches that against what happens, the links they have with arms firms and their support for research, and also the links with Israeli universities. They suggest that sometimes matters of governance, partnerships and approaches to free speech can exert a chilling effect as has been seen at other academic institutions.

Risks

They identify several risks: legal, financial, reputational and wellbeing in the report. Official communications do not reference the historical and legal realities of military occupation in Gaza, settler colonialism on the West Bank, apartheid, or the longstanding siege of Gaza. They also do not engage with international legal developments and findings, including United Nations and international and Israeli civil society organisations, which have raised serious concerns that Israel’s conduct in Gaza may amount to grave breaches of international law, including acts that violate the Genocide Convention.

In addition, University statements do not situate events in Gaza within the wider regional context of Israeli military aggression, including the bombing of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Qatar, and Iran, which have resulted in additional civilian deaths and escalating regional and global instability. Instead, communications tend to frame events primarily as a bilateral conflict and to address Palestinian deaths, displacement, and civilian harm largely through the language of humanitarian crisis.

This framing obscures a central and well-documented reality: the “conflict” is characterised by profound asymmetries in power, control, and vulnerability, including Israel’s effective control over borders, airspace, and key conditions of civilian survival in Gaza, including access to humanitarian aid. In this context, large-scale civilian harm is not only the outcome war, but it is shaped by Israel’s political and military decisions that have driven mass displacement, civilian targeting, severe restrictions on essential supplies, the use of starvation as a method of war , bombardment, and the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including all twelve universities.

Power of money

They maintain this bias is not accidental but managed, where money and and power repeatedly take precedence over stated values. Students and staff who raise concerns about arms partnerships, or who engage in Palestinian solidarity, face ‘scrutiny, marginalisation or silencing’ – a direct threat to freedom of speech.

Money has become an existential issue for universities and many are struggling. The drop in foreign students has been a severe blow. The suggestion, implicit in the report, that the desire to secure research funding from arms firms has led to threat to their core values. Links to Israeli universities are not inherently wrong but the nature of the research might be.

The CAAT piece ends “our report is an attempt to interrupt that silence resisting erasure – of lives, of knowledge and our ability to name what is happening requires more than critique. It requires cultivating the capacity to see clearly even when language obscures: to think critically even when institutions reward compliance and to remain connected to our sheared humanity, to people, to place and to the consequences of what is doe with our knowledge our research and our labour”.

Some content from the report.

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Israel ‘concealing evidence of genocide’


140th vigil well attended. Need to maintain the spotlight on genocide and war crimes

August 2026

Around 35 turned out this week (8th) and this number swelled at times to over 40 with people stopping for a while. The need is still there with killings going on despite the so-called ceasefire. There were scarcely credible reports of a more permanent ending which almost certainly will come to nought. [UPDATE: Israel rejects Trump’s plan today 9th]. Israel is reported to be engaged in a process of concealing evidence of the genocide.

Destroying the evidence

One event beginning to happen is Israel is now busy trying to clear away the evidence of genocide. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports that around 10 million tonnes of material has been cleared away from Gaza. They report:

“The Israeli forces, along with Israeli civilian contractors, are conducting a wide and organised operation to process and clear the rubble from neighbourhoods and facilities they have destroyed in the Gaza Strip and relocate it from areas under their military control to outside the Strip.

“This is occurring without any official record of the quantities removed or independent oversight, and before international and local investigative committees have had the chance to survey, examine, and document the sites. This risks destroying crucial evidence of genocide and the remains of victims still unaccounted for under the rubble.

“These operations are not part of organised humanitarian efforts to rescue the missing, open roads, or prepare for reconstruction. Instead, Israel is acting unilaterally within closed areas under its military control by demolishing remaining buildings and then crushing, mixing, and transporting the rubble before forensic teams, evidence experts, and unexploded ordnance specialists can examine, document, and preserve the sites, along with the evidence and human remains […]”.

Since thousands of remains of Palestinians lie buried in this rubble, this represents a dreadful and unfeeling extension to the genocidal crimes Israel has already committed. The full story can be read here. A search of this topic was carried out and there is no sign of it being reported in any UK news outlet [accessed 9th].

Mass burial

Last week, a mass burial took place of 112 Palestinians, 40 of whom were children, killed in one of the deadliest strikes which took place since October 7th. An entire apartment block was demolished in November 2023 and 157 people are still missing. Their bodies could not be recovered until now.

No sign of the local MP Mr John Glen who despite the genocide and continuing killings is a ‘proud member’ of the Friends of Israel lobby group along with around 140 other MPs of all major parties.

Photo. Two members standing by a traffic island which attracted a good level of response from motorists. Photo courtesy of Peter Gloyns.

Sources: Euro-Med, Kuwait Times, Eupal, The Canary. No UK media could be found.

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Reactions from an IDF soldier


Many IDF soldiers are troubled by what they see

August 2026

There is a danger when we see film of IDF soldiers who are all kitted up such that we cannot see their faces, in assuming they are unaffected by the carnage, death and destruction they witness. There is film of IDF soldiers gleefully smashing up Palestinian homes and no doubt filled with the propaganda of Arab malevolence, who are only too keen on their work. But not all are and our attention has been drawn to an article in Haaretz which describes the trauma of one Israeli soldier.

HAARETZ, August 06 2026


After helping direct artillery fire that claimed civilian lives in Gaza, former Israeli combat medic Yael is struggling with debilitating trauma and remorse. Her long wait for treatment highlights the military’s failure to care for soldiers scarred by war….
Yael, who asked not to use her real name, is 22 years old. She enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in August 2022. She says she was highly motivated. She wanted to contribute, to do meaningful combat service.

The army listened and granted her wish.. “I left the army and saw the number of children killed, and I was shocked. I started searching obsessively for information online. I looked for the neighborhoods we attacked, the villages,” she recounts. “I saw that many innocent people were killed in these places, I saw pictures of dead children. In the army, they told us we only kill terrorists, but that’s a lie. Artillery fire is imprecise; the army considers a hit within a 50-meter radius to be a good hit.”..
“I have nightmares. I see inside my head dead children, crying mothers. I imagine how the bodies are removed. The guilt doesn’t leave me. How can it? I killed an innocent child, I was the one who fed the targets, it’s on me.”.. She was discharged from the IDF a year and a half ago…..


Since October 7, Haaretz has spoken with more than 300 people suffering from mental injuries caused by the war. Some of them reported suffering from PTSD due to exposure to intense combat experiences. Others described extreme guilt due to the deaths of their comrades in combat or of civilians on October 7. Recently, the barrier of shame has broken. More and more soldiers talk about moral injuries they suffer, often related to exposure to or participation in war crimes prevalent in the Gaza Strip.


The army prevented me from getting treatment,” she says. Only after her mother contacted the battalion commander did he meet with her for a conversation. “I told him I was harming myself and that I had suicidal thoughts,” she says. “I wasn’t exaggerating. I didn’t want to live this suffering anymore, this reality where 18-year-old children are killed, and I hear their last moments. I don’t agree with it. I don’t support it.” The mental health officer ordered her removed from combat duty. About two months later, in December 2024, the IDF discharged her….


When she returned home, the symptoms struck with intensity. She felt she was withering. “I became a shadow of a person. I didn’t see the beauty in life. I saw everything in gray,” she recalls. “Every day I had to cope with such severe panic attacks that I’d scratch myself, hit myself. I was depressed. ..
She felt not only pain in her heart but also anger towards her battery commander (“he’s a scumbag”), and, in fact, towards the entire system. “The state ruined my life, and after it ruined my life, it didn’t bother to give me the treatment I needed. It forced me to prove I was injured, to fight for recognition.” Today, she is in ongoing treatment, taking psychiatric medications, trying to alleviate the pain.


She finds a ray of light in the change in her values, in her moral compass. “Before the army, I was an extreme right-winger, one who would say ‘Death to Arabs.’ That was the myth in school that influenced me,” she explains. “But after the war, I understood that there’s a difference between Hamas terrorists and Palestinian civilians who want peace, who want life. I saw the conditions in which Gazans live. I realized there must be a change, that we must strive for equality, for peace. This is the only way to save the children, to save us all.”

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