Dr. Gabor Maté broke his silence over the weekend in a “long overdue” conversation about the latest round of escalating violence in Israel-Palestine that began earlier this month.
https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/116862/holocaust-survivor-gabor-mate-israel-palestine
Dr. Maté says that the October 7 attack was an “unjustifiable atrocity and tragedy” that was “historically reminiscent of other assaults that Jews have experienced throughout history.”
He says it's “a very difficult” and “emotional” conversation because it “brings up so much history, pain, and trauma,” which makes it “difficult to engage with the rational part of our minds.”
“From that point of view, the pain, the fear, the rage, and even the desire for revenge are totally understandable on the emotional side,” he says.
However, he says the issue is that in times like these when emotions are high it is “difficult” to see and acknowledge the “other side.”
He quotes from an Ha’artez article that Israeli journalist Amira Hass – who has been covering the daily atrocities committed in the West Bank for three decades – wrote following the attack: “In a few days, Israelis what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades and are still experiencing - military incursions, death, cruelty, slain children, bodies piled up on the road, siege, fear, anxiety over loved ones, captivity and searing humiliation.”
He adds to her point: “History did not begin on October the 7th. If our intention is to move forward and create some basis for peace, we will have to be able to understand the experience of the ‘other.'"
To provide historical context, he mentions the Nakba in 1948 – Arabic for “catastrophe” – when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their historic land following Israel’s independence.
“Without going through the long history - I will only tell you that we have to ask ourselves: What fed such hatred, such desire for revenge, on the part of those people that broke out of Gaza?” he asks rhetorically, noting that Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimberling has called Gaza "the largest concentration camp in the world."
He adds: “None of this justifies it, again, but, I’m telling you, if you’re going to move forward on this, we have to be able to understand not just our own emotional reactions but also the emotions and circumstances that fuel the emotions of the other side.”