It’s not my humanity in question – it’s yours
I’ve been unable to write since October 7. Every time I try, it comes out unfocused. So I’ll try to keep this short.
I saw many of the videos of the massacre of Israelis on October 7. I watched men drag the raped and lifeless corpse of a young woman through the street. I watched grandparents shot. I watched a girl burned alive. I watched a man beheaded. I watched terrified mothers and children carted off to Gaza as hostages. I couldn’t watch the ones of little children, but I saw the photos instead.
On October 7, I became a different person.
I realized that I’m not interested in friendship, or even polite acquaintance, with people who would welcome my murder. And I realized that I know way too many such people.
I’m tired of carting out archaeological, linguistic, genetic, and historical evidence of Jewish indigeneity to Israel. You don’t care about indigenous rights. You’ve got some Tide pod-eating TikTok influencer on your side.
I’m tired of explaining how the Jewish story has been appropriated by the very people who seek to destroy all Jewish life. You don’t care about history. You’ve got Osama bin Laden cheering you on.
I am tired of asserting my humanity. It’s not my humanity in question – it’s yours.
So if you are one of the hyenas who laugh and applaud the slaughter, who gleefully and self-righteously tear down the posters of kidnapped children and deny the irrefutable evidence of this massacre, I want you to know that you have no Jewish friends. The “Jews” who agree with you are not Jews anymore. And the rest of us wish your stay in hell – with your pals Hitler and bin Laden – to be as long and miserable as possible.
Tatyana Sundeyeva
