As Gaza war continues, an Israeli author dissents in print DW 09/18/2025

"At first it felt barbaric to be writing a book after October 7, 2023, Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen said, "especially while we have the hostages kept there, away from their families in Israel, and destruction going on in Gaza and you will allow yourself the privilege of escaping into a different world, into a world made of your own words? It felt wrong.""

""For me, this was a moment where I thought, 'Wait a minute. The right wing, the fascists, are scared of words. They truly believe that words can change something.' I thought, 'Well, if fascists fear words so much, then maybe it can also be used as a weapon,'" she said. "'Not to escape reality with words, not as escapism quite the contrary: as a way to face reality.'""

"In the novel, an Israeli toddler drops a hammer from a balcony, killing a teenage boy. A Palestinian construction worker who had been working on that balcony is arrested. The little boy's mother remains silent. What follows is a drama about guilt, denial and revenge a mirror of Israeli society, which Gundar-Goshen sees as trapped in a fatal cycle of fear of the "Other.""

After October 7, 2023, creative activity felt morally fraught amid hostages and destruction in Gaza. Calls to boycott books and films that portray Palestinians humanely revealed a fear of words among right-wing factions and suggested that words can be a weapon to confront reality. A novel published in German this summer, Ungebetene Gaste (Uninvited Guests), examines Jewish–Arab relations in Tel Aviv through a plot in which a toddler drops a hammer, killing a teenager, and a Palestinian worker is arrested while the child's mother remains silent. The story becomes a drama of guilt, denial and revenge, mirroring a society trapped in a cycle of fear of the Other. A psychotherapeutic perspective traces hidden mechanisms and recalls a personal episode involving a Palestinian laborer and a subsequent news report of violence.

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