Simon (those quoted by their first name did not wish to give their last name) socially withdrew in the year following the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. He stopped answering his phone, declined dinner invitations and stopped meeting friends at cafés. The 29-year-old special education teacher in the Paris suburbs, who is Jewish, no longer had the “strength” or “the courage” to discuss the Middle East conflict with his non-Jewish friends. Twenty-year friendships were put on hold.

“Me, I expect empathy, I want to tell them to let me be afraid for my family over there. I want to tell them that, if Israel no longer exists tomorrow, it won’t change anything for them, but for me, it will change everything: Israel is my refuge. I want to tell them we’re not on a talk show, and I don’t want to have to define what a genocide is. But, in reality, it doesn’t matter what I think or what I feel. All that matters in the eyes of others is what I am, and I am Jewish,” he confided.

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