“The hardest hit camp in Israel was the peace camp”
Interview with Sarit Michaeli, International advocacy Lead at B’Tselem
7 October 2024. On October 7th, 2023, Hamas, alongside several other Palestinian armed groups, launched simultaneous attacks on southern Israel. 1, 139 Israelis were killed, and 250 were taken hostage. These attacks, and the terrible acts of violence they included, such as acts of torture, gender-based violence, killing, and kidnapping, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Israeli response amounted to revenge which is still ongoing. In the hours following the attacks, Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip and started large-scale bombardments of civilian areas and infrastructure, also committing war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout Gaza. Of the original 2.2 million Gazans, nearly all have been internally displaced, and over 42,000 have been killed, with some estimates suggesting the real figure is much higher. The scale of violence against Palestinians in Gaza, including tactics such as orchestrated famine, has led the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) to be among the first international NGOs to denounce the situation in Gaza as an ongoing genocide. As of now, the violence continues and is spreading throughout the region with a new war in Lebanon that has already resulted in over 1400 deaths and 1.2 million displaced people.
To reflect on a year marked by massive violence and trauma for both Israelis and Palestinians, FIDH interviews Sarit Michaeli, the International Advocacy Lead at B’Tselem, an Israeli member organisation of FIDH. Her perspective, along with that of her diverse team of Israeli and Palestinian researchers, sheds light on the brutalisation witnessed since October 7th, 2023. FIDH stands in solidarity with all victims and reiterates the urgent need for the return of hostages, the release of Palestinian prisoners and a lasting ceasefire.
FIDH: What happened on October 7th 2023 and how did you experience it?
Sarit: The events themselves on October 7th shocked us all. I don’t think anyone considered something so horrific could happen, even though we said, in our apartheid position paper in 2021, that this situation is inherently violent and unstable. I don’t think anyone expected Israelis to suffer such a horrific loss. Many of our friends and colleagues experienced deep suffering and personal loss. People were killed and injured, kidnapped, and taken hostage.
And then almost immediately after the shock of our Israeli staffers and board members, our Gazan colleagues began to be hit with terrible pain and suffering too. Israel almost immediately started a revenge attack on Gaza which hasn’t ended yet after a year. People we know from the South have suffered devastatingly, our friends and colleagues who work in Gaza, have been thrown into hell.
We had three field researchers in Gaza. They lost dozens of family members and their homes. They have evacuated since, and don’t know whether they will ever meet their relatives in Gaza again. Our field research in the West Bank have also been hit, due to Israeli settler violence and severe movement restrictions throughout the West Bank.
This is what we have to deal with as an organisation. Aside from just all of this horror, I don’t have any better words to describe it. There are difficult questions for us now. How can we even document the conduct of hostilities in Gaza when so many people have been killed? Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Israeli attacks, and we wouldn’t be able to even begin to research the circumstances of all of this. How is it possible for us to report from Gaza when it’s too dangerous for anyone to visit attack sites?
Israeli society is experiencing a wave of trauma, shock, hatred, and revenge against the Palestinians. What is our role when the violence has reached such massive proportions? And now we have an ongoing war with Lebanon which threatens to spiral out of control and become a regional conflict. We also have the hostage crisis which is still not resolved, there are still 101 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in appalling conditions, of whom 50 are presumed still alive. The Israeli government is deliberately undermining and avoiding what is necessary now: a hostage swap coupled with a ceasefire. Those two things are inseparable.
FIDH: What impact did this violence have on Israeli society, human rights organisations, and more generally, the peace movement?
Sarit: First of all, I think we are part of Israeli society for better or worse. Israeli society has gone through a terrible process where the humiliation that we suffered and the fear and trauma that we suffered have been transformed into this unprecedentedly aggressive and militaristic position.
Our society is already one of the most militaristic societies I know. The shock that Israelis went through, the terrible crimes inflicted by Hamas, other armed groups, and also by Palestinian civilians against Israeli civilians on October 7th, are not something one could just shrug or brush aside. But what has happened in response is an eruption, or may I use the word an "orgy" of revenge. Within Israeli society, what would have been unacceptable a year ago is becoming normal. And this is also compounded by the fact that our government is not doing anything to resolve it. On the contrary, it is making it worse, leading Israel on a course of a constant escalation of hatred, even before October 7th, 2023.
There is also a political process where Israel is exploiting the trauma in order to pursue its political objectives vis-à-vis the Palestinians, mainly expelling almost all of the residents of the North of the Gaza Strip, and expediting the takeover of land in the West Bank. The majority of Israelis feel so vengeful, angry, and humiliated, and many of them are no longer interested in any sort of public criticism of harm to Palestinians. In addition, some Israelis have other priorities, facing their problems. A lot of Israelis have been evacuated from their homes, and have been placed in crazy situations. It put Israeli human rights groups in a very challenging situation because our messages are so removed from the dominant discourse in our society.
We have to challenge a public climate that is hostile, with very few allies remaining. And we have to do it while at the same time suffering a lot of loss ourselves. Paradoxically speaking, the hardest hit camp in Israel was the peace camp, the human rights camp, and the left generally. I don’t want to say that it is just about perception, there is also a real, very justified, security fear of many Israelis who believe the government’s position. So I don’t want to discount trauma and fear. All of this has led many Israelis to be quite hostile towards this message of human rights and the humanity of "both sides".
B’Tselem has tried to talk about this really basic issue of maintaining our humanity. But it is a very difficult time for us all. The one thing I can say, though, with certainty, is that I have so much trust and so much solidarity and love and support for so many of our colleagues and friends, not just inside the organisation, but throughout our sector, the Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups. We are stronger and more resilient. But it is very hard and challenging for us at the moment. It is not even possible to imagine a worse outcome for the human rights of all people living in our region than what has been happening over this past year.
FIDH: How do you assess what has happened since, and mostly most recently with the Lebanese context?
Sarit: In December 2023, B’Tselem joined several Israel based NGOs that called for a ceasefire: Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Gisha, Adalah. Since then, we have been very central in the Israeli ceasefire coalition. The only way out of this mess is to engage immediately in real negotiations to create a hostage swap and a ceasefire, which should include an immediate mutual cessation of hostilities, an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Palestinians to all parts of Gaza and a complete end to Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
The hostage deal will involve a release of Palestinian prisoners. A massive number of the Palestinians arrested since October 7th were not tried but were arrested under administrative detention. They have not yet faced trial or any sort of allegations, and have gone through abuse and torture. B’Tselem refers to the Israeli prison system as a network of torture camps.
It is not only about the situation in Gaza and in the West Bank, it is about the entire regional safety. The events in Lebanon are just making it more crucial to have a hostages/prisoners deal, it is the only way to have a beginning of a diplomatic process.
FIDH: What are B’Tselem current objectives, practically what is your organisation looking at and doing?
Sarit: When there is such an eruption of mass violence, an organisation like B’Tselem does not have a lot of resources. Our work relies heavily on field research. Our main challenge is that we currently have several roles.
First of all, we continue to report from the ground in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while also tracking developments in the Gaza Strip through credible sources and our field researchers in Cairo. We gather testimonies from individuals in Gaza via phone and by other means, though this is not an ideal approach. Additionally, we have selected topics for investigation or research that don’t require us to be physically present in Gaza.
The prisoners are one of the main topics. We looked at how the Israeli prison system changed after October 7th. We have collected testimonies from many individuals in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, as well as Israel proper. We remain committed to continuing the research on things that have been happening in the West Bank as a reflection of Israeli policy.
Another main topic is the forcible transfer of communities from the rural part of the West Bank, by settler violence. We have been following, and tracking the exact number of communities that were displaced by settlers supported by the authorities. Additionally, we have been following and tracking the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, which we have not been able to do in Gaza because of the sheer scale of events. It is a crucial part of our understanding of who is being targeted, and who is being killed.
We are also dealing with a lot of pressure internally in Israel. For example, recently when our executive director gave a speech at the United Nations Security Council, we got massive amounts of blowback. An intensive smear campaign from Israeli policymakers. We are very busy protecting our staffers and our field researchers, although it is not always straightforward.
FIDH: How can the international human rights movement help you?
Sarit: I think the international human rights movement is performing a valuable service through their documentation and advocacy efforts, which support ours, for justice and accountability, as well as for a ceasefire and hostage deal.
B’Tselem is an organisation with a very diverse staff that employs both Israelis and Palestinians, either Palestinian citizens of Israel or Palestinian residents of the West Bank. And so we expect strong solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for what they are having to endure this past year, which is simply unfathomable, as well as at the same time a remembrance of the utter devastation and the horror of October 7th. This shared empathy is a deep need for us. We have to remember this basic principle of the sacredness of human life and human rights.
A lot of people have had their humanity eroded or could have any sort of empathy for the "other side". I know people, my colleagues in Gaza who have lost their homes and their families. And I have friends and colleagues in Israel who have lost everything and had relatives taken hostage.
We can have an analysis, a political analysis, and a historical analysis of what is going on. We can remember, everything that we saw, Hamas’ attack and the Israeli response and the years beforehand, because obviously, this did not start on October 7th. It is the outcome of long term policies and historical processes, while at the same time as analysing policy, we need to have basic human empathy for all human beings, their suffering, and reject attacks against civilians.
FIDH: What messages are you sending to the international community?
Sarit: It is hard to fathom the amount of violence Israelis faced on October 7th. Torture, rape, sexual assault, gender-based violence, the taking of hostages… Just as I don’t think I can fully grasp the Israeli response against Gaza and the Palestinian people as a whole, that includes the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, turning most of Gaza into rubble, implementing a policy of starvation and manufacturing a humanitarian catastrophe. And I don’t think anyone could have predicted that after a year we would still be in it. But what was predictable was violence in this situation of an apartheid regime.
Palestinians are systematically, discriminated against, and marginalised, while at the same time, Israelis have preferential status. This inherently violent reality would invariably lead to violent eruptions.
So even though no one could have predicted the exact scope of October 7th, the fact that the only way to move towards a different future begins with respecting human rights. For me personally, it’s become clear that the use of brute force will not guarantee safety. In fact, a year into this, I think many Israelis feel much less secure, in spite of our massive use of military force. The essential component to promote this sort of change is international action. Because we know it has been proven again and again by now, I think convincingly, that Israel is not going to change course on its own.
Clearly, Hamas is responsible for its actions and the decision to attack Israeli civilians, and should be held accountable for its war crimes, just like Israeli policy makers should be held accountable for their war crimes But I think we also need the international community to take some responsibility for its many years of inaction in allowing this situation to fester, ultimately leading to devastating violence and loss of life.
FIDH: What future between Israelis and Palestinians do you aspire to?
Sarit: I have to say that like everyone around me, I am very pessimistic at the moment. For myself, and for B’Tselem, the critical issue is rights and equality. Israelis and Palestinians have to be in a situation where each human being - regardless of their birthplace, religion, nationality or political views - enjoys the same rights - political, social, economic -, and enjoys equal access to resources.
What we demand is full equality, protection, and security for all human beings living here. The solution must be nonviolent. Any sort of "solution" involving subjugation, killing or expulsion is unacceptable. I think that the only future worth living in this region is a shared one. It must allow for Israelis and Palestinians to live in this region within a framework that would provide them all with the same rights regardless of the number of states that this involves.
After so much devastation, many people feel a desire for revenge. It is a human emotion, but our leaders need to resist it, instead of fanning the flames. That is the vision I would like to see. Do I think it is realistic in the short term? I cannot say for certain. At least people understood on October 7th that you cannot just "manage the conflict". You have to resolve it.
