Dispatches from the Gaza Envelope

Key Findings:

Gitit Zamir Botera, manager of the National Digital Center (NDC) in Sderot, survived a heavily traumatic day on Oct 7 when Hamas targeted her community. Despite the panic she experienced post the 7th (alongside a previous PTSD diagnosis) she returned to work immediately, serving as one of the main points of contact for journalists. Her job requires her to speak directly about the traumatic events she and others have lived through. She says, “We have a lot of people [who will] never speak again,” she told us. “And the world needs to know the truth.”

Like Gitit of Sderot, many Israelis who survived Oct 7 move through their trauma by returning to a sense of normalcy as immediately as possible and restoring a sense of agency. They face the events they endured head on by getting up and going to work every day, and mobilizing towards rebuilding their communities. The author states, “The civic impulse in Israel’s devastated southern communities is one that accepts the reality of tragedy, puts it in the past, and faces the future with a commitment to create rather than destroy.”

The author encourages Jews in America facing antisemitism to draw inspiration from the resilience shown by Israeli communities near Gaza. They should focus on unwavering support for each other, maintaining their identities, and resisting attempts by external forces to divide them.