So, I came up against a true believer who says Gaza doesn’t deserve life nor limb
I recently attended an event at which a number of well-heeled people expressed their pain over Gaza. Not that the deaths of innocent people continued, too many times to count, but that poor Israel was forced to live alongside folks who had provoked such furious reaction.
“It’s not possible any longer to live alongside such people,” said one interlocutor, clasping their hands on their chest in urgent appeal. “These are people who murdered babies while they raped women.”
“But to live side by side is reality, surely,” I murmured.
They agreed with alacrity, cutting me off, their eyes gleaming with unshed tears. “You’re right, we have to live alongside, but it’s getting harder and harder.”
There was more in the same vein, a torrent cold with hate. I judged it best to stay silent, realising that I had come up against that most unseeing tribe — the true believer, someone who cannot look further than their own group loyalty, identity and dominant narrative to feel or even discern the distress of other human beings.
As Israel’s punishment of the people of Gaza continues — and may, in fact, remain the horrific reality for the rest of the year, according to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, the true believer’s voice is becoming shrill, waspish and angry in service of their cause. Perhaps it is the sight and sound of thousands of pro-Palestinian rallies in cities around the world? Perhaps it is the international condemnation for Israel’s recent strike, which killed dozens of Gazan civilians in a camp for displaced Palestinians? Whatever it is, the true believer is loud.
What is deeply unsettling is the true believer’s sense of victimhood while arguing for the annihilation of Palestinians’ right to life (and limb).
If you plead for humanity, the response is jarring in its utter certainty that “such people” have any right to be considered as people.
As my interlocutor said, “It’s not possible any longer to live alongside such people”.
To which one might say: So, what are you proposing? To kill them all so as not to live alongside them?
I did not ask these questions. There was no point. The true believer is not for turning.
Conflict can bring out the very best and worst in our fellow human beings. Some of the finest stories of selflessness emerge from the darkest episodes in human history. And some of the very worst excesses are perpetrated with the loud support of true believers, who refuse to recognise our shared humanity. Think back to the red-stained sentences in history books that document genocides.
The point about this reflection is that the wealthy, entitled and information-rich such as my interlocutors are as likely to be true believers in some cause or other as those who lack those advantages. Entitled or not, the true believer will display motivated reasoning, be susceptible to misinformation and/or partisan disinformation.
Surely you too have come up against the true believer at some point in your life, dear reader? What did you do then?
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
