{"id":1978,"date":"2026-05-29T11:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T09:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T09:50:17","slug":"a-trauma-allapota-izrael-a-haboru-mentalis-utohatasaival-kuzd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/a-trauma-allapota-izrael-a-haboru-mentalis-utohatasaival-kuzd\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of Trauma: Israel Struggles with the Psychological Aftermath of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Studies and officials report rising post-traumatic stress, suicide, and social tension in Israel following the conflicts that have lasted since 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After more than two years of relentless bombing and war \u2013 from Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza and the Hamas-led October 2023 assault on southern villages, to the country\u2019s successive wars and strikes against Iran, Lebanon, Syria and other neighboring states \u2013 analysts, observers and numerous studies within Israel have concluded that the country has been shaped by trauma.<\/p>\n

A recent survey by Maccabi Healthcare Services found that about a third of Israelis believe they need professional mental health support. The picture is even worse among those who have served in the military, whether as conscripts or reservists. In January, the Israeli Defense Ministry reported a nearly 40 percent increase in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among soldiers since September 2023, and a 180 percent increase is expected by 2028.<\/p>\n

Israeli media reports say the government has not published the number of soldiers discharged due to mental health problems during the same period, despite being legally required to do so.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Magen David Adom, Israel\u2019s ambulance service, launched a dedicated mental health emergency service after seeing a 45 percent increase in calls. The majority of the calls, they said, were related to the ongoing burden of the country\u2019s multiple wars.<\/p>\n

Suicide, a key indicator of mental health, has risen sharply across society as a whole, but especially among the military, with 78 percent of military suicides in 2024 linked to combat operations in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post reported in February.<\/p>\n

Domestic violence cases, as well as mental health issues such as depression and stress, have all spiked since the start of what many in the country see as a series of endless wars in October 2023.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Israeli President Isaac Herzog appeared to acknowledge the trend in late May, citing an increase in violence in Israeli society, including attacks on Palestinians from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, as well as an increase in violence against Christians.<\/p>\n

At an awards ceremony, he said: \u201eI wish I could only talk about unity today. But to my great sorrow, we are living in days when violence is not the only thing that rears its head. In parallel, on the margins of our great Israeli society, a terrible process is creeping in \u2013 a terrible process of brutalization. It is a slow and disturbing process that threatens to infiltrate the mainstream of Israeli society, and we will not allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201e"Like a change"\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201eOctober 7 was like a shift, and the trauma it caused is widespread and ongoing,\u201d Tuly Flint, an Israeli mental health professional and combat veteran, told Al Jazeera. \u201ePeople\u2019s sense of security has been shattered,\u201d she said, arguing that the gap between past and current conflicts has created a false sense of security and misplaced confidence in Israel\u2019s military and technological superiority, which has kept what she describes as the \u201eoccupation and oppression\u201d of Palestinians at a safe distance.<\/p>\n

\u201ePeople have lost trust in their society, their government and their institutions,\u201d Flint said, describing a sense of institutional betrayal among those who relied on the state for protection, or the moral injury experienced by those who experienced the consequences of state failure. \u201eIn some cases, this has led people to embrace right-wing politics, respond more forcefully to perceived threats and lose trust in government,\u201d he added. It\u2019s a trend, he said, that shows no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n

A poll conducted earlier this year by the N12 news website among first-time Jewish Israeli voters suggested this. 46 percent of 18- to 21-year-olds who grew up during the Gaza genocide and seemingly endless regional conflicts said the events of October 7 were caused by \u201einternal betrayal,\u201d and a majority of respondents also found that this generation is the most right-wing and religious in Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Embedded violence<\/h3>\n

However, analysts and observers say it is unclear to what extent these trends began on October 7, 2023. Violence has been an integral part of Israel since its founding in 1948, analysts such as renowned Israeli sociologist Yehuda Senhav-Shahrabani told Al Jazeera. The events that followed October 7 merely gave new impetus to existing currents.<\/p>\n

\u201eOctober 7th was like a new beginning,\u201d Senhav-Shahrabani said. \u201ePeople create beginnings to erase the trauma of the past. Giving trauma a start date helps explain that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shenhav-Shahrabani recalled a conversation with his friend, the late Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, who described to him his idea that Israelis needed to experience defeat in order to become \u201emore human\u201d and less arrogant, saying, \u201eI\u2019m not sure that happened. October 7 was a defeat, and since then Israelis have become even more fascist.<\/p>\n

\u201eThere has always been a fascist element in Zionism, but more liberal trends, such as the kibbutzim, have obscured it. But since October 7, it has become more and more obvious. It is visible everywhere,\u201d said Shenhav-Shahrabani, who quit teaching in response to endless criticism from a growing number of right-wing students.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zahava Solomon, a professor at Tel Aviv University who has researched the phenomenon for the past 40 years, said how the current trauma will shape Israel in the future.<\/p>\n

Trauma can motivate a society to be strong and aggressive, or to always seek negotiations, he said. For Israel, the past trauma of the Holocaust, he said, instilled in the society a sense of absolute victimhood, instilled in citizens from the cradle, for whom the mantra of \u201enever again\u201d has become second nature.<\/p>\n

As for the Palestinians, who have experienced their own victimhood, this has "serious consequences" for the future.<\/p>\n

But for Flint, who remains on the front lines of dealing with the consequences of the collective trauma of wars, \u201ethere is no cure.\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201eThere is only recovery. If people have crossed that threshold, that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tanulm\u00e1nyok \u00e9s tisztvisel\u0151k a 2023 \u00f3ta tart\u00f3 konfliktusok ut\u00e1ni n\u00f6vekv\u0151 poszttraum\u00e1s stresszr\u0151l, \u00f6ngyilkoss\u00e1gr\u00f3l \u00e9s t\u00e1rsadalmi fesz\u00fclts\u00e9gr\u0151l sz\u00e1molnak be Izraelben. T\u00f6bb mint k\u00e9t \u00e9vnyi k\u00f6ny\u00f6rtelen bomb\u00e1z\u00e1s \u00e9s h\u00e1bor\u00fa ut\u00e1n \u2013 Izrael g\u00e1zai n\u00e9pirt\u00e1s\u00e1t\u00f3l \u00e9s a Ham\u00e1sz vezette 2023. okt\u00f3beri d\u00e9li falvak elleni t\u00e1mad\u00e1s\u00e1t\u00f3l kezdve az orsz\u00e1g egym\u00e1st k\u00f6vet\u0151 h\u00e1bor\u00fain \u00e9s csap\u00e1sain \u00e1t Ir\u00e1n, Libanon, Sz\u00edria \u00e9s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,19],"tags":[96,153,155,154,104],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-az-izraeli-kormany-politikajanak-kritikaja","category-news","tag-izrael","tag-kozel-kelet","tag-mediaelemzes","tag-nemzetkozi-kapcsolatok","tag-palesztina"],"modified_by":"Antipropaganda H\u00edrblog","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}