Israeli Activists Protest Gaza Siege Amidst National Divisions

"...calling on the international community to sanction and isolate their country..."

"...to 'stop the genocide and end the decades-long Zionist apartheid regime.'..."

"...They’re in denial, and I think the best way to get out of this denial is to keep shocking them until everyone faces the horrible truth that we are committing genocide...."

"...Dubbed the 'Sderot cinema' by Israelis online, watching Israel’s bombardment has become a popular pastime; people take turns looking through tower viewers. Some bring popcorn and snacks, and some snap selfies as the thud of airstrikes echo in the distance...."

"...Hemo said he doesn’t want any Arabs living next to Israel any longer, and laments the world’s sympathy for Gaza after what happened on October 7...."

"...Many Israelis have struggled or refused to move past this one moment in time, viewing it as Israel’s 9/11. And until there is a sense of closure - the return of the hostages and answers to how it happened – they see little reason to contemplate what’s happening on the other side...."

"...Saturdays in Israel have turned into a weekly ritual. Thousands converge every week on the streets of Tel Aviv to express their anger at the government and call for an end to the war...."

"...The killing of more than 66,000 Palestinians by Israel are rarely, if ever, mentioned by the protesters or displayed on banners...."

"...Israelis who do not share that view blame the country’s media for fueling that rhetoric...."

"...Dr. Ayala Panievsky, an Israeli author and researcher at City St. George’s, University of London, told CNN that since the October 7 attacks, mainstream media participated in a campaign of 'dehumanization' of Palestinians; outright promoting the notion that there is no innocent life in Gaza...."

"...Focusing on Israel’s most influential and popular channel, Channel 12, Panievsky said Palestinian voices were 'erased'. When the channel aired footage from Gaza, it would mostly show Israeli soldiers in combat, and rarely the human suffering of Palestinians, she said...."

"...Haaretz, Israel’s longest running newspaper, is one of the few news websites that has covered Palestinian suffering in Gaza extensively since the beginning of the war...."

"...It carries a social cost for its journalists...."

"...Nir Hasson, the paper’s Jerusalem correspondent, says he receives death threats and hate mail whenever he reports stories from Gaza. The anger directed at him is greatest, however, when he publishes testimonies from Israeli soldiers admitting to atrocities in Gaza, because it’s something people 'can’t ignore'...."

"...He called it a 'total failure' on society for not seeing other people as human beings...."

"...Panievsky has a similar view. Since before October 7, she said the Israeli government had been applying political pressure on the media, compelling journalists to omit certain words from their broadcasts, such as 'occupation' and replacing them with government talking points...."

"...As a result, media coverage of the occupied West Bank and Gaza was greatly reduced before the war...."

"...The idea of an Israeli press facing unprecedented pressure found support in Reporters Without Borders 2025 World Press Freedom Index. 'Press freedom, media plurality and editorial independence have been increasingly restricted in Israel since the start of the war in Gaza,' it said...."

"...While footage and photographs of starving Palestinians in Gaza have horrified audiences abroad, inside Israel they have been dismissed by many as manipulated or untrue...."

"...One popular term used by Israelis to deny images of suffering emerging from Gaza is 'Pallywood,' a portmanteau combining Palestinian and Hollywood, the home of acting. Online, Israelis often insist the images are staged; if not, they argue Hamas is to blame...."

"...More than 400 Palestinians have died of malnutrition since the war began, and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed panel of experts, declared famine in the territory’s Gaza governorate in August...."

"...A poll conducted by Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) in July, before the IPC’s famine declaration but when aid agencies had already been warning for weeks about starvation in Gaza, asked Israelis: 'To what extent are you personally troubled or not troubled by the reports of famine and suffering among the Palestinian population in Gaza?'..."

"...Of the Jewish respondents, 79% reported that they were not so troubled or not at all troubled. The majority of Arab respondents – 86% – said that they were very troubled or somewhat troubled...."

"...For Avraham Burg, an author and former speaker of Israel’s parliament who has become a prominent critic, what lies behind this state of denial in many Jewish Israelis goes far beyond media influence...."

"...After the inception of the state of Israel, its leaders 'never recognized the very existence of the Palestinian people' and acted in ways to make their citizens think the same, he said...."

"...Burg says he was always a 'peacenik' even during his center-left political years. Although there was discrimination towards Palestinians in the Knesset halls he served in, he said the situation was more balanced back then...."

"...In many ways, extremity has become the measure of Israeli society nearly two years after October 7. In the days following, Netanyahu promised Israelis 'we are going to change the Middle East.'..."

"...Since then, he has pursued drawn-out military offensives even beyond Gaza’s borders, often against the advice of his own military...."

"...The Middle East has, indeed changed, but not entirely in ways Netanyahu had intended. Once nearing normalization with Saudi Arabia and potentially other Gulf nations, Israel is now more isolated than it has been in years – and not just in the region. For Netanyahu, it is a price he has chosen to pay, and has taken Israel’s citizenry with him, whether they approve of his choices or not...."

"...To the activists at Gaza’s border fence, the call to make their country an international pariah may be extreme, but it is essential in the face of what they see happening...."

"...“I stand here as an Israeli unwilling to remain silent in the face of the war crimes and genocide in Gaza,” said M., one of the participants. “These crimes are being committed in our name, and it is our duty to resist them.”..."