Horror struck twice rather than once in October 2023: first with the barbaric attacks of Hamas, then with the bloody response from Israel. Since then, the grim toll of victims, the vast majority of them civilians, has only increased – in 2024 it reached a scale that we thought was unthinkable. A year later, faced with the concentration of atrocities – perhaps watered down by distance and our emotional fatigue – our revolt seems to have largely given way to apathy.
“It becomes a news item like any other, summed up in Duty Ghayda Hassan, professor of psychology at UQAM. The normalization of violence [dans notre société] certainly diminishes our sensitivity and our revolt in the face of this violence. »
A normalization which is nourished both by regular exposure to violent images, particularly on social networks, and by the circulation of ideas that “there is always war over there”, “humans are are always killing each other”, or even “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will never be resolved”.
Emotional and cognitive fatigue also develops in the face of these events of extreme violence “which makes us return to our everyday lives and focus on that,” explains M.me Hassan, who herself lived through the civil war in Lebanon until she was 18. A reflex which is not generalized, but which reflects the individualistic inclination of our modern society.
A year later, the death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas is beyond belief. In one day, October 7, 2023, Hamas would have killed 1,205 people in Israel, in addition to taking 251 hostages to Gaza, of whom 97 would still be captive. In its year-long response, Israel is said to have killed more than 41,802 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
According to Ghayda Hassan, our growing apathy also draws its source from the feeling of helplessness linked to this seemingly eternal conflict and from the deepening gap between “them” and “us”.
“There is a construction – particularly since September 11, 2001 – of the Arab, the Muslim and the Palestinian [qui fait en sorte qu’on les perçoit comme] potential terrorists,” she points out, referring to “a dehumanization of the Palestinian people.”
Our identification with Ukrainians (who also face significant civilian casualties in the war against Russia) — a white, European people of Christian heritage — is, converselymuch easier. Politically and ideologically, too, the situation is clearer since Russia is represented as the enemy of Canada, analyzes Mme Hassan. “It’s clear, it’s binary: there are bad guys and good guys and we have to be on the side of the good guys to protect them. For the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is much more complex. »
Saturated
After being attacked so violently, some Israelis also find it difficult to empathize with Palestinians in Gaza, the Duty Nimrod Goren, senior fellow for Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute.
“In times of conflict, all societies turn inward. And I think that’s what’s happening [en ce moment] for Palestinian society and for Israeli society. Everyone focuses on their own suffering. »
The bloody attack of October 7, 2023 brought back memories linked to the Holocaust, he recalls. For many Israelis, the war their country is waging against Hamas therefore takes on an existential character.
” A lot [de Juifs] cannot live safely within Israel’s internationally recognized borders, which is the fundamental reason why Israel was created as a state,” the Jerusalem-based researcher emphasizes, recalling that the country is facing threats from Iran, Yemen, Iraqi militias, Hezbollah and Hamas. “It’s coming from all directions. »
Already overwhelmed by what they are experiencing, many Israelis have little emotional availability to sympathize with the pain of Gazans, adds the man who co-founded the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies (MITVIM). “The media [israéliens] don’t talk much about the suffering of the Palestinians. Above all, it is the suffering of the families of the hostages which is covered and that of the Israelis killed or injured in the fighting. »
The fact remains that a segment of the Israeli population is alarmed by the large number of civilian deaths in Gaza and wants a two-state solution, mentions Nimrod Goren. ” But [les événements ne vont] not in this direction. »
Loss of humanity
Faced with the decline in our sensitivity to these tens of thousands of deaths, is it not our humanity that is in danger? Absolutely, answers Ghayda Hassan. “Our ability to build a humanity, a collective us, is certainly at stake right now. »
The polarization of political opinions has been juxtaposed with “a polarization of emotional reactions” which has distanced us from “a collective reaction to defend human rights”, she believes. Undermined by extreme ideologies, our collective “we” dissolves in favor of identity-based “us”, defined in the face of an often dehumanized “them”.
“It is not possible, from my point of view, humanly, not to be deeply revolted by the massacre of children and civilians, whatever it is, wherever it is,” affirms Professor Hassan. There are founding principles of humanity which must not be violated. »