How is the current conflict affecting you?

[TheGruffalochild]

This thread is intended to be a safe space to talk about how you are impacted by the current conflict. May be wishful thinking- but it isn’t supposed to be a place to take sides, place blame, or use inflammatory language. Nor is my intention to fill a thread with links to historical information and YouTube videos arguing either side.
Im just starting this thread because I’m feeling my mental health deteriorate from seeing and reading about so many scenes of violence on the news/social media. Of course all victims on both sides have suffered something unimaginable and I can’t even imagine how their pain compares to my discomfort. But I’d like to exchange on how every day people are affected and have a space for mumsnetters to support one another.
I know some have posted they’re waking in the night thinking about the events. I’m experiencing something similar - there is some broken scaffolding outside my home that rattles when it’s windy. The other night I initially woke with visions of someone firing at my house then realized it was just clanking bits of metal.

Please don’t take this the wrong way. I know how privileged I am to be safe in my home with all my loved ones around me. I know I could turn off the news - it will happen with or without me watching live updates. I’m so irrelevant in all of this. Yet at the same time I feel obliged not to look away from such massive and meaningless loss of life.

My lowest point today was seeing a tiny premature baby in an incubator in Gaza on the BBC.

Without electricity that will stop working.

It's unbearable.

@IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls It is utter horror. Write to your MP, ask them what they are doing to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Gaza, and what are they doing to ensure the safety of civilians.

Firstly op it is depressing that you have to write such a long opening post to state the aim of the thread. You were totally right to do this in the current atmosphere but depressing people canjust not jump down others throats.

I feel alsorts of emotions. Annoyed at the idea some people are so 100% pro Palestine or pro Israel they are willing to say anything to provide their right. Like it is some kind of a contest to them and they will cheat to win. This is not a game this is peoples lives!

I am sad my children will probably have to hide their Jewish ethnicity for a long time because of the conflict. Scared since the days Corbyn was Labour leader that Jew hate is on the rise in the UK. It is not only him that cauthis slow upward trend other facts are involved but it was is shifty fans that made people think hating on Jews was OK in the UK. The current situation means his opening of the flood gates will really show more.

At work I am deliberately avoiding staff I know will want to talk about it or ask me questions. I can deal with the students doing this but not adults.

Lastly I can't stomach the images I am seeing from Israel or Gaza. All those children killed or injured. The psychological affect on the children that survive totally worries me. You have all those Gazankids and then the hostage kids and pogrom survivor kids in Israel. It is beyond unbearable to think about.

I am appalled by the whole
situation. The needless loss of life that has been ongoing, and continues in 2023.

We have been affected as my son has expereinced antisemitism in his school because other children have taken our surname (Eastern European) to mean he is/we are Jewish. Children unleashing hatred onto others. We are not Jewish. We have no one Jewish in the family, but we do have Muslims in our family. We often go to our local mosque for events.

I cannot imagine the fear that Jewish and Muslim families live with from people outside of their communities all the time; and especially when something in the news sees a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Peace to you all. We deserve better from our societies and governments.

Thanks for this thread. I feel such a mix of emotions l: despair, sadness, anxiety and fear. I keep scrolling on social media and it sends me into a right spin because I feel like I should be doing something but l just want the madness to end. I am trying not to think about the horrors but at the same time I feel really guilty about sitting in my warm and safe house, watching it all play out.

As a British Muslim, I’m fearful for my children. My kids like all kids are just awesome, but I feel like they will always be judged as Muslims and expected to explain themselves/pick sides. I want them to know about the world but I don’t want them to be impacted by all this hate and destruction. I feel really sad that they’re maybe Jewish people around me who feel unsafe or scared and I hate that I feel like that too.

I'm depressed. I'm pretty depressive anyway, but it has come crashing down over the last 9 days. I'm obsessively reading about it and finding it hard to focus on other things.

I'm worried about everyone caught up in the conflict, but particularly about friends and family in Israel. (I don't mean that they're more at risk than people in Gaza, or more deserving of concern, but they are my personal connections.) I worry about my daughter off to uni with her Jewish name...

I've seen a horrible side to human nature. Just had a discussion with a Danish woman on Facebook who apparently is quite happy for every man, woman and child in Gaza to die. I think she is the closest I have come to evil in my long life. I also worry about life for the Jewish diaspora. We have a wonderful candidate of the presidency of Mexico who is Jewish and there have been a few antisemitic comments already

Thinking mostly about the children, wishing I could help them

💐

I don't see any way now for Nagorno Karabakh to be restored as it was. The process of ethnic cleansing is all but complete - apparently there are fewer than 50 Armenians left. Going to the ICC is the only option left but that is primarily concerned with retrospect and it means losing Russian assistance, for what that's worth.

I had buried my head in the sand til the Hamas event attack. Afterwards I started researching Palestine Israel history, realising how ignorant I was about their histories from WW1 onwards. Over the last week particularly I have absorbed so much history and present news, I’m left feeling heartbroken about the innocent blood shed, babies, children and young people killed and the humanitarian crisis. Not wanting to accidentally upset anyone, I haven’t discussed the news with any Jews or Muslims colleagues, although I have talked to close friends who feel the same. A couple have stopped watching/reading the news for their own mental health, their lives in crisis already and the news tipping them over the edge.

It's not.

Not my religion, holy land, war, country, background etc.

I wouldn't get into talks with anyone about it other than it's a bad situation.

I have no idea who's "right" because I'm skeptical of news reports.

I feel sorry for both sides. I however live in the uk. Got enough issues.

complex i guess. i live far away and am retired so i stay in my bubble and avoid too much exposure to any and all "news".
i find the concept of war frustrating and pointless at the same time with so many excellent negotiators world wide i would think a small group could resolve this without bloodshed.
i feel climate (in the case of the middle east decreased fresh water supply), population density and poverty has led to intolerance.

some area's have had problematic relations for over 2000 years and i hope outside factions mind their own business.

Agree with all the comments about how awful the whole situation is.

Just think the world (as John Lennon imagined) would be so much better off without religion.

Or would everyone just find another reason to fight?

Northern Ireland.... they aren't fighting for religion

It’s deeply upsetting me. Every time I go on Twitter it’s mere minutes before I see dead children or injured with that daze in their eyes and the innocent twinkle gone. I have a toddler. It really hits me as I can’t help but imagine what if that was him. How scared he would be. So many kids orphaned. No one to care for them when they need it the most. I go from welling up to sheer internal rage about it. I felt exactly the same when I saw the Israeli nurseries covered in bullet holes and blood smears last week.

I also worry about U.K. state of security and terror attacks. Our gov shouldn’t be supporting this attack on Gaza. Everyone condemns the hamas attacks. We should be condemning these idf attacks too.

I feel like I’ve become a conservative.

A bit of “us or them” attitude, which crumbles when I see images of the poor people suffering in Gaza. My heart breaks for all those people, their animals… the despair. You know, my own child wails at the sound of a siren (ambulance), and I think about the children in these countries experiencing that. They must be terrified, anxious…and not developing appropriately due to the stress. It’s devastating.

Having family directly impacted by this (I’ve over 100 family members in Israel) is hard. While every single one of them are OKAY, alive, … many have lost friends. One cousins wife was murdered while visiting her family in beeri ;(

all my (blood) cousins who lived on kibbutz’s just happened to live in the north.. near Lebanon. I am so thankful that they are okay. They fled their homes and headed towards the bigger cities immediately that morning… haven’t returned. They have babies, twins, could have been their faces on the news.

I keep thinking… what if Hezbollah was also in on it that day, and had infiltrated the northern borders… my cousins would be dead. It’s too much to process.

This is exactly how I feel

According to the BBC Hamas aren't terrorists so, if they're right (and why not - Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris, Princess Di interview, Princess Di interview (alleged) cover up and on and on being aberrations, we're all okay - er maybe not?

I can relate. I’ve had one friend text me and have had to come off social media, exasperated by the things I’ve seen ‘friends’ sharing . I even reached out to a couple people to say gently, that they may not have been aware of the harm/hurt it does in sharing things justifying the attacks - I was just met with lectures on how I was wrong, complete gas lighting and lack of sensitivity. I even shared something saying about please check in with your Jewish friends - again only one person responded. My DP’s non Jewish family also not said a thing. Feeling very alone, worried for my kids and that I can’t trust anyone. I haven’t been able to sleep either , can’t bare the thought of the suffering and evil in this world 😥. Heartbroken for all the innocent people caught up in this.

I think the state of Israel is behaving like a raging narcissist - and the way it is manipulating other countries into supporting it 'officially' is really triggering.

I think any expressions of public support should be for the innocent civilians on both sides - with a current emphasis on the Palestinians, whose situation now is awful beyond comprehension.

So sad at the suffering and cruelty on both 'sides'.

And finding it hard that people I assumed would see the situation as I do are taking what I believe to be hardline positions. I'm learning to shut up. It's a lonely time.

I don't have any smiley or friends living there and I don't live in the area either so it hasn't affected me in that it's not having a direct impact on my life - I'm not in danger of dying or losing a loved one, I'm not desperately worried about keeping my kid's safe tonight.

I just feel like humans will never see that the way we respond to events like this just makes everything fucking worse - an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind. I had real hopes after the peace talks in NI that people would realise sitting and listening to your 'enemy' is far better than trying to force them to live under the exact conditions that create extremism, but it's like we learned nothing from the treaty of Versailles. And each time it's (usually though not always) powerful, wealthy men so far away from the action calling the shots while those with the least power and voice die. Not one dead Palestinian child voted for Hamas 17 years ago and not one dead Israeli child called for this shitshow of retribution either. I honestly just feel that some people have no humanity any more.

I have friends in Israel, thankfully they are safe. But they know people who have lost family members to the Hamas attacks. Cowardly, evil men attacking women, children, the elderly - I am filled with cold fucking rage towards Hamas and their apologists. There can be NO justification for the things they have done.

The Netanyahu government is a disgrace as well. Their actions have served to foment this. I feel very sorry for innocent Gazans who are suffering. Hamas must go and Netanyahu must go or no resolution will ever come.

It's not really. Childhood trauma has made me good at compartmentalising my feelings. I don't look at the news nowadays. What will be will be and there's nothing I can do.