A year ago, the worst terrorist massacre in Israel’s history left more than a thousand victims. The first targets were the kibbutzs (small villages where ownership is collective) located near the Gaza Strip, including that of Magen where I lived in 2000.
I had chosen to carry out my volunteering stay in Israel in this kibbutz, because it participated in an Israeli-Palestinian friendship initiative resulting in visits by Gazans to Magen. This was the time when Hamas did not control the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority was negotiating peace with the Israeli government.
We know the rest. This negotiation failed. Then, in 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, despite coming from the right, forced the evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. A courageous decision based on a desire to make peace, but which had the effect of strengthening the radical right in Israel and allowing Hamas to take control of this territory. With the failure of the peace process, this created the context that led to the attacks of October 7, 2023.
When I heard about these attacks, I immediately knew that my kibbutz had been targeted. Fortunately, some of its inhabitants were able to defend it heroically, to the point of greatly limiting the number of victims. For nearly 7 hours, thanks to heavy fire, Israeli civilians and off-duty soldiers managed to keep the terrorists out of residential areas where they would have wanted to massacre more innocents, as they did in other kibbutz.
This war will continue to require heroes. But achieving peace will require heroes of a different kind. Heroes capable of making reciprocal and intelligent compromises. This is how a hope for peace can be reborn which, after all, still existed 24 years ago.
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