Blind ideology normalises monsters

I’m not writing this text for my people – the people of Israel, the Jewish people. I’m writing it for those who have chosen to ignore reality.

On 6 October 2023, we celebrated the birth of my third daughter, Asif. After a long and complicated pregnancy, her birth was a miracle. The joy was immense, and my beloved mother, Marcelle, came to visit me in the hospital, along with my husband and our two children. These were moments of pure happiness before reality turned into an indescribable nightmare.

I live in Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha, just 2km from the Gaza border. I knew the cycles of conflict, the endless sirens, the rush to shelters. But nothing prepared us for 7 October.

That morning, my mother, a 65-year-old woman, a wonderful grandmother who used to peel too many oranges for the kids which would fill their shirts with sweet juice, left the guesthouse in the kibbutz to come to us, just 200m from my home. She didn’t want the children to be alone and afraid when the sirens wailed.

Hamas terrorists – six or seven of them, armed with Kalashnikov rifles – saw her walking along the path. An elderly woman, barefoot, in pajamas. They decided to murder her in cold blood.

My brothers, who arrived to rescue our family and other kibbutz residents, found her lying in her own blood, her body riddled with bullets. When they lifted her, they saw she was still clutching candies for my children, pressed against her heart.

One of the terrorists, later captured by the Israel Defense Forces, said in his interrogation, “I saw an old Jewish woman with a jalabiya [head scarf] on her head walking on the path. It was funny. We all shot her.”  Then he returned to Gaza to celebrate – to eat baklava and rest. It was a day of joy for them.

And this is just one story. One out of 1 200 stories of horror.

While we pick up the shattered pieces and while I try to move forward with a newborn baby without my mother, without a home, our neighbours in Gaza and the West Bank celebrated. They danced in the blood, handed out sweets and glorified the murderers.

And then I heard the claim in the Western media: “This is part of the struggle against occupation.”

Those who chose to praise Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for murdering women and children, for raping young women and men, for carrying out indiscriminate massacres – they have normalised monsters.

They have turned the word “occupation” into an excuse for every atrocity. In the name of blind ideology, they have legitimised the slaughter of babies, the rape of women, the mutilation of corpses.

They have killed morality.

They see images of charred bodies, butchered infants, dismembered women, and find a way to justify it. They have normalised monsters.

Such people around the world sit in cafés, chatting with friends, reading the newspaper, voicing their opinions with conviction, and at the end of the day, they return home, surrounded by a sense of security. Some of them even take to the streets to protest, convinced that they are fighting for justice.

So here’s my message to those people:

The beast you are nurturing will not stop here. Today, it is in Israel, tomorrow, it will be with you. Because when morality dies, when there are no more red lines, there will be no one left to protect you either.

You have turned ‘anti-occupation’ into a blind ideology, where any act – no matter how horrific – is justified.

We are facing these monsters today. You will meet them tomorrow.

Liora Ben Tzur’s South African-born mother, Marcelle Taljah, was murdered on 7 October 2023. Ben Tzur was scheduled to come to South Africa to speak to the community on 7 October 2024 but her flight was cancelled.