Six months of war in Gaza
Frustration and war fatigue
Door Ingrid Ştefan
By Ingrid Ştefan
Ingrid Ştefan
Half a year ago, on what seemed like a normal evening, Ezra, an Israeli PhD student, got a message in the family group chat, which read plainly ‘We’re at war’.
Stress and worries immediately started to run high. Would he be called back into the army? If he refused, would he ever be able to return to Israel?
The war didn’t come as a surprise to him, though. ‘I think a lot of people knew that something like this was going to happen even before the terrorist attacks, since Israel has had at least eight years of huge military operations’, he says. ‘There’s always this kind of new round of an attack and response, and then a quiet period. It’s almost part of daily life.’
However, that doesn’t make the war any less intolerable for Ezra (a pseudonym).
‘There’s a huge sense of frustration because it’s such an immense loss of life on both sides’, he says. ‘It’s hard to be a patriot anymore. Why would I dedicate my life to a lost cause? Maybe I would have if I could change my country for the better, or if I believed there’d be peace. But really, there’s not going to be any peace in this generation. Or the next one, by how things are going.’
Activism
Ezra’s not the only one to feel this way. Asked how students in Groningen feel about the Israel-Gaza war after six months, the main emotion they voice is frustration.
It’s hard to be a patriot anymore
‘At first, I just felt helpless, devastated by what’s happening to my people’, says Palestinian UG student Masa from Jordan. ‘I was just disappointed, by the world, the Arab countries, Europe.’
But the more time passed, the more Masa’s disappointment turned into anger. ‘Every day, all day, I’m fired up about this. But the thing is, anger consumes you. You can’t just be angry. You’ve got to turn anger into action’, she says.
And that’s just what she’s doing, through activism, as an attempt to cope with everything that’s happening. ‘You find ways to keep on pushing and you find a community within those tragedies; people you can grieve with.’
War fatigue
For PhD student Eden, coping is all about action as well. That’s why he’s a member of the International Socialists. ‘Politically, I’ve been an activist for Palestinian liberation for a long time’, he claims. ‘But I hadn’t really faced the full reality of it until now, when the complicity of the media, of the Western world, just hit me hard.’
Though he’s ashamed to admit it, Eden doesn’t follow the news on the conflict anymore. ‘I had to stop because of how depressed I got.’ But he still keeps joining the pro-Palestinian marches and demonstrations. ‘That helps me deal with war fatigue’, he says.
Kim, who’s doing a master in writing, editing and mediating, also believes that sometimes you need to take a step back, even if it feels selfish. ‘It takes a toll on you to keep seeing pictures of dead and burnt bodies every time you open your social media.’
Hard to maintain
That feeling of weariness seems to be prevalent among the student community. ‘Our response to something so horrible is waning, because it’s hard to maintain that for so long’, says student of European languages and cultures Magdalena. ‘You can’t help but have an emotional response when you see what’s happening.’
It takes a toll on you to keep seeing pictures of dead and burnt bodies
Ezra, too, prefers to distance himself from the subject. Not because it isn’t important, but because it hurts too much. ‘I’m trying really hard not to watch the news, because I get easily stressed and emotionally affected by this stuff’, he says.
‘The best hope is that you live far away enough and have a safe enough life that it doesn’t touch you’, he explains. ‘But that’s no way to live. You’d like to believe in what your country is doing. In what you’re paying taxes for, or what your money in your bank eventually supports.’
Privileged
Masa also got burnt out. ‘Consuming so much media about it took an immense toll on my mental health. I couldn’t focus on my studies or anything other than the war’, she says.
As a Palestinian in the diaspora, however, she’s been raised to believe in resistance and to stand her ground. ‘This is something that is built in me, something I’ll never let go of’, she says. ‘So yeah, I did get war fatigue. But then I realised I didn’t have time for that. I have to keep doing the work, watching the news, showing up. Because I’m privileged enough to be here.’
While it is understandable people get tired of hearing about the war, says Maria, who’s doing a master in public international law, staying informed is just a small sacrifice to make. ‘We must get involved and keep reading about it’, she argues. ‘If people don’t look at the nuances, we’ll end up in a circle of misinformation and misunderstanding.’
Because the topic is extremely complicated, agrees English language and culture student Robin. ‘I just want the violence to end’, he says. ‘I can’t have a more nuanced opinion than that.’ The sentiment is echoed by artificial intelligence student Kyriyakos. ‘People have been very politicised. But at the end of the day, we all feel the same way about the suffering. We want it to stop.’