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With a massive hostage-taking this weekend, notably at a rave party on the border with Gaza, Hamas has moved the conflict within Israeli society itself.
The images went around the world; a group of young people dancing, wildly, to electronic music. Ravers, dreamers too – the party was called “a festival for peace” – surprised by an offensive of microlights, motorcycles, and armed men, “our biggest nightmare,” says Diamond. She only wants to give her stage name – “out of modesty, not out of fear of saying it,” the tattooed young woman wants to clarify. DJ, she is part of this Israeli subculture popular in all social circles, a sort of Israeli version of Burning Man, parties in nature until the early hours which often make fun of borders and codes. “Something was broken,” she adds. “I close my eyes and think of my friends who were there; I don’t know how I can party again,” she says, rolling a cigarette. She’s shaking a little. “And imagine that happening to you on acid?”
Seen from today, in post-October 7 Israel, the concept of organizing a peace festival on the border with Gaza seems absurd, unconscious. But this is not at all strange for an Israeli society which had become accustomed to waking up in the morning “without thinking about the conflict”, as the former Prime Minister had eloquently mentioned.