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Israeli victims who do not want revenge

On October 7, in a mass attack by Hamas, Maoz Inon lost his parents, burned in the safe room of his kibbutz in Israel. For Nita Hyman, a viral video snapped her out of the fantasy as her 84-year-old mother wouldn’t answer the phone due to network problems. She is still kidnapped in Gaza. From afar, in Germany, Noe Katzmann did not understand the magnitude of what was happening, and thought his brother Chaim would be okay when he was killed in his home.

The three of them lost their voices today when talking about their loved ones who were no longer here. One feels that they cannot find the quality to add to the pain or anger to truly define their feelings. But there is a word that is difficult for them to pronounce: “revenge.” They do not want this, despite being victims and the prevailing atmosphere in their country: 85% of the population of Israel supports the invasion of Gaza; President Isaac Herzog blames civilians in Gaza for Hamas attack; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likens Hamas to the nation of the biblical enemy of the Israelites, whom God commanded to destroy King Saul, and many lawmakers openly call for genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Their personal tragedies did not prevent them from the initiatives in defense of Jewish-Arab coexistence in which they were involved, to varying degrees, before October 7. Instead, they strengthened their will to stop the cycle of violence. Especially Enon, who says that that day transformed him from a “social activist into a peace activist.”

These are their stories.

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