Yotam Peled
Post of former ‘Israeli’ soldier after watching NAZA goes viral
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- The ex-soldier describes growing up with values of peace alongside military training, noting a turning point at age 17 when meeting Arab students who identified as Palestinian.
- The post argues that psychological dissociation and maintaining a narrative of victimhood are used to justify land theft, dispossession, and ongoing conflict.
- The post has amassed 71,000 likes as of Wednesday.
An introspective post shared by Yotam Peled, a former ‘Israeli’ soldier, has gone viral online, accumulating over 71,000 likes after reflecting on the impact of watching NAZA, a documentary co-directed by filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
The post chronicles the writer's shift in perspective, tracing a personal arc from childhood socialization to deep disillusionment with state narratives surrounding the ongoing conflict.
A conflict of values
In the post, the former soldier describes growing up in an environment that championed principles of peace and tolerance while simultaneously preparing youth for military service, a contrast he describes as creating a profound "cognitive dissonance".
"Despite the desire to become a soldier, I grew up on values of 'peace' and 'tolerance'... War seemed to me bad, but a necessity for safety," the post reads.
The writer recounts a pivotal moment at age 17 during a youth "co-existence" project involving Jewish ‘Israeli’ students and Arab students from Tayibe. When the local students identified themselves as Palestinian rather than ‘Israeli’-Arab, it challenged the group's assumptions:
"I remember the shock in our group. Why don't they identify as 'us'? Are they ungrateful? Are they angry? Are they the enemy? It was too early for me to understand back then, but something cracked in me that day."
Confronting dispossession
Reflecting on historical context, the writer critically evaluates the foundations of the state and the psychological mechanisms used to justify continuous military action and land acquisition.
"Guilt and shame are such a powerful force in our psyche... Our brain creates mechanisms, rewires itself in extraordinary ways to dissociate," the post continues. "Israel was built on dispossession, massacre, land theft... European nations did not want to deal with millions of Jewish refugees, nor with their guilt, so Israel seemed like a good solution for everyone. Besides the Palestinians."
The post asserts that maintaining public support for long-standing oppression relies on a deeply ingrained sense of victimhood and perceived security threats:
"How can the dissonance of being good, and oppressing others survive? Only by believing you are a victim. Only by believing the other is not human... Our leaders made sure we are always afraid, loyal, ready to make the sacrifice."
The impact of "NAZA”
The catalyst for the public post was the documentary NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Expressing intense emotional resonance after viewing the film, the former soldier expressed gratitude to the directors for their work.
"Thank you, Yuval and Rachel, for your courage to expose the truth. I was in tears for hours... Gaza will be a scar, a mark of Cain for Israelis to bear."
Now residing in Berlin, the author notes the irony of witnessing these events from Germany while grappling with personal accountability and social isolation from former peers.
"In the past years when I made pro-palestinians posts I received backlash from Israelis, those who I used to consider friends as well. One word stood out the most - 'traitor'," the author shares, concluding: "If standing by truth and justice makes me a traitor - then so be it. Free Palestine."
Public response
With 71,000 likes and counting, the viral response highlights a growing international interest in internal ‘Israeli’ dissenter perspectives and the power of investigative documentary filmmaking to reshape public discourse surrounding Palestine.
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