Shock and soul-searching: Israeli authors react to the war

"This is a terrible time in Israel. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It's really very hard emotionally for all of us," Israeli author Yishai Sarid tells DW, describing the deadly attacks and kidnappings of children, elderly people and civilians committed by the militant organisation Hamas "as crimes against humanity".

"It's unacceptable in any sense, you know," he says.

In his seven novels, Sarid has often dealt with the trauma of conflict.

Victorious, one of his recent books, which was translated into English in 2022 after the international success of The Memory Monster, is a deep dive into the psyche of Israeli soldiers, and thus into Israeli society, since practically everyone has to do military service in the country.

When Sarid won the Levi Eshkol Literary Award earlier this year, he donated the prize money of 40,000 Israeli shekels (€9,675/$10,200) to a grassroots organisation working with Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost family members due to the conflict.

Such organisations can serve as a symbol of how people are trying to work towards reconciliation. "But unfortunately, it's a small island in a sea of hostilities and violence and war," Sarid adds.

The novelist, who is also a lawyer, finds the current outbreak of violence particularly "heartbreaking", because it basically "kills any hope" of finding a solution to the conflict — especially considering that he is among the minority of Israelis who would accept major compromises in order to live in peace with the Palestinians, including returning to the pre-1967 borders in a two-state solution.

"But for that to happen, you need to have some trust. Trust in the other side," he explains.

He still believes that "the solution is not in violence".

He deplores Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's strategy of strengthening Hamas by enabling Qatar to transfer millions of dollars to the armed group, thereby weakening the Palestinian Authority, a political body with more moderate views.

"So politically, strategically, what we are seeing now is the huge failure of Netanyahu in this government and this strategy, not just militarily (sic), but also as a matter of policy," says Sarid.

But, he adds, "right now we have to defend ourselves".

More humanity needed

"As a child I grew up in Israel and it was a promise that this is a safe place for Jewish people," says another Israeli author, Lizzie Doron.

Doron has openly advocated for peaceful understanding between Israelis and Palestinians in her works, which has made her unpopular in her home country — especially after her focus evolved from dealing with the trauma of the Holocaust to interviewing former Palestinian militants, to try to better understand their hatred for Israel, as the basis for her novel Sweet Occupation (2017).

Still today, amid the attacks, the author believes Israel made the mistake of not being open enough towards its Palestinian neighbours.

Doron feels that for many years, Israel tried to overcome problems and find solutions.

"But in recent years, we seem to have gotten off the track," she says, denouncing the Israeli government, along with right-wing and ultra-Orthodox lobbies, for gaining political power in the country's politics and taking over the agenda.

They have "brought us to a moment where we have even lost the strength of the military. This is heartbreaking," Doron says. 

She also denounces the biblical concept of the 'chosen people' that she sees at the core of the Jewish identity.

While the writer condemns Hamas and stresses that she grieves for everyone who died, she still feels that "we need to do our soul-searching in spite of the catastrophe".

She wants dialogue with the Palestinians, to allow all sides to share "their vision as a human being".

"We have to find people who will communicate, otherwise we are doomed to fight forever," she says.

Still hoping for peace

Novelist Assaf Gavron was in London when Hamas launched its multi-front attack, but he is returning to Tel Aviv on Friday, 13 October.

"This is where I belong. I have my life there and my daughters go to school there," says the author of several novels, including the award-winning The Hilltop (2013), which is set in an Israeli Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Gavron also criticises the government's policies.

The judicial reforms and the protests against them made the army weaker, Gavron adds, and "Hamas was well aware of this". 

"Netanyahu and his government disregarded the Palestinians; they have been crushing them, and it's been worse than ever. They've been promoting settlements more than ever," says Gavron. They thought they could thereby contain the Palestinian problem, he adds, but "this concept collapsed".

Gavron nevertheless remains hopeful that even if Israel remains traumatised for a long time, the "enormous magnitude" of the current events might create change.