Ashdod, 20 kilometers from the war zone in Gaza, is an enclave of the Israeli right

Or Tzaidi runs a footvolley club with her boyfriend – volleyball is played with your feet. They fell in love on this Ashdod beach, overlooking Israel’s largest industrial port and its refinery. On weekends they go to raves and dance outdoors. For the past two weeks she has also been a journalist. Channel 14 has hired her on a trial basis. At 21, with no degree, no CV and no connections, Tzaidi writes articles for the website of this low-budget commentary whirlwind with a huge fan base. This new television channel, which panders to the Israeli right, is helping to normalise a discourse with genocidal overtones in the ninth month of the Gaza war. “They want young people, fresh blood,” says the young woman, who would rather write posts on social media – but you have to start somewhere.

Her editors have a good eye: Tzaidi is very much in tune with the times. She wants to take life lightly. She wants to tell the truth, like her champion, the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir. In her eyes, this anti-liberal homophobe who believes in the supremacy of divine law and the Jewish people is a democrat. He does not see himself as an obstacle to feminism. And as for the racial war against Arabs that he has advocated throughout his career? “We know today that we cannot live together. There is no solution, but we can reduce the problem,” says Tzaidi. And the policy of starvation and ethnic cleansing in Gaza that he promotes? She wants to believe that “they will leave voluntarily if Israel offers incentives.”

As people in Ashdod took a dip in the sea before Shabbat dinner this Friday, it was easy to forget that the hell of Gaza lies just 20 kilometers to the south. But there are a few reminders – the idle cranes at construction sites, empty for lack of Palestinian workers exiled from the territory during the war … the posters of Israeli Hamas hostages that fade and disappear. When did they stop putting them up around the city? Or, and their friend Ruben Dray couldn’t say. After six lean months, their business picked up again in March. Recently, they organized a tournament in support of Hamas prisoners at the request of families fighting to ensure they are not forgotten.

In this bastion of the Israeli right, the hostages are very present. But it is a way of mourning them. They are a nuisance. Their ordeal legitimizes the war, but there is no question that Israel would end it to release them as part of a deal negotiated with Hamas. “In my town, there is not much nuance,” said the great Ashdod poet Sami Shalom Chetrit. “It is as if a football team is playing somewhere and we have become a crowd of fans. We shout empty slogans: ‘Together we will win,’ ‘Total victory,’ ‘Bring them home.'”

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