I have never seen so much evil; so many people eager to express wickedness; competing with each other in demonstrating their closeness and lack of empathy. I never knew people were capable of being so evil. To rejoice in the pain of others. To rejoice when people suffer, starve, die, lose everything they have and die. That is why I have never been so afraid. The feeling is that a mighty dam has been breached and masses of Israelis are removing all restraints of humanity from themselves and racing to wallow together in toxic hatred, joy in the ego, dehumanization, and violence. As if they were just waiting for the moment when they could free themselves from the rules of etiquette that obliged them to maintain a semblance of morality. With shouts of age, they are shedding the conventions and norms that human society has been building for thousands of years to curb the rampage of the ego. They are giving freedom a new meaning: freedom from the shackles of culture. Equality has been erased from their lexicon, not to mention human dignity. Compassion, empathy, loving your neighbor as yourself — have been abolished … The new Israeli togetherness is based on an addiction to hatred and bloodlust …
None of this happened in an instant, nor on its own. There was someone who had been inciting and poisoning for years, and had built a sophisticated machine to do so systematically ... In the list of Netanyahu’s crimes against humanity and against Israeli society, stripping many Israelis of all moral inhibitions is one of the most serious. And the highlight: he managed to turn his most terrible failure, the October 7 massacre, into the ultimate excuse that justifies and encourages the new evil Israeliness. Like a Pavlovian response implanted through hypnosis: People only need to remember that day, and they immediately desire the destruction of Palestinians. And along the way, they are also eager to alienate the kidnapped, attack their families … Netanyahu does not alone bear public responsibility for the horrific disintegration that is taking place before our eyes. He, the members of his government, and the coalition MKs are all openly leading this terrible process. Their fault is complete. And the media that serves them with sickening obedience, and performs the mass hypnosis process for them, and anyone who fills or aspires to a leadership position, who does not set moral boundaries and does not present an alternative, bears responsibility along with them.
In times when a society is losing its moral backbone, as is happening to us now, positive leadership is needed. One whose moral compass is clear, and which is not afraid to call evil evil and demand moral behavior … [one]that does not adapt itself to the murky public mood, but rather points to the human path, the object of life, and calls out "after." Without such leadership, it is hard to believe that a society can extricate itself from the quagmire into which it has sunk … I'm not talking about the Gantz and the Lapidim, who are incapable of stammering a word of moral leadership — there are no expectations from them. Their moral emptiness is obvious. But even the Eisenkot, on whom desperate Israelis are throwing their love, are filling their mouths with water … Even Yair Golan, who correctly identified the processes a decade ago — refuses to cry out against them today ... For political reasons? Like Netanyahu? Even judges, military personnel, and former gatekeepers who fill platforms and panels and stand firm against the coup d'état — are silent in the face of the moral horror. They too are blinded by the two million Gazans who are being expelled, starved, and slaughtered by us incessantly; in the face of organized pogroms backed by the authorities and under the auspices of the security forces in the West Bank. Yehudit Karp, who was the Deputy Attorney General and is crying out against the horror, is an exception that proves the rule. And so are the leaders of the protest, whom we hoped would emerge as an alternative leadership … Despite the loudness of the Israelis who are racing to the bottom, I am sure that most of us desire life and peace; That we have not renounced humanity. We have been silenced in the face of violence and ugliness, but we are still here.
(Orit Kamir is Professor of Law and Gender at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Visiting Professor at University of Michigan Law School).
