Israel will have to address its self-inflicted PTSD

A 'moral hazard' looms for the country's citizens as they come to terms with atrocities in Gaza, warns Steve Biddulph

- Steve Biddulph

Thirty years ago, I was on an author tour across Germany.

Midway through, the young publicist on our team asked if we could visit her grandmother who lived near our day's route. This frail woman in her 80s, face deeply lined, welcomed us with cake and strong coffee, and talked in an intense, animated way.

My German is not great, but she seemed to embark on a rambling story, intended for me, the only non-German there. I could pick up that it was about trains, and she pointed out the window to a railway line traversing the end of her garden. My companions looked ashen-faced, they translated as best they could. She was talking about the war. And the cattle transports which would sometimes stop overnight in a siding, before moving off at dawn.

And on still nights, the muffled sounds of people’s voices, calling for help. I was shocked to realise that she was confessing. Fifty years after the fact. That she had known.

The situation in Gaza brought this back to me, because it is the same psychological space. Knowing, and not knowing. The immense, looming moral hazard that the people of Israel and their supporters overseas are facing as the facts of this genocide inevitably emerge.