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Racist. Jew hater. Jew lover. Muslim hater. Anti-Muslim. Antisemitic.
These are just some of the things I’ve been accused of on social media over the past few months. Some of the insults have even been in face-to-face encounters.
It seems I have irked a lot of people with the stories I have written about Israel’s war in Gaza over the past few months. I guess they don’t like what I wrote or it did not fit their agenda.
For me, it is no longer surprising to be attacked after I write an Israel-Gaza story.
Don’t get me wrong, I have developed a thick skin during my time as a journalist and it is my responsibility to ensure that I stick to the facts of the story no matter how emotional I might be.
A former editor once told me to never become the story. My feelings on the Israel-Gaza war are my personal views and don’t affect my work. My articles reflect both sides of the story, but I have come to realise, that you can never really appease people sometimes, especially when they want you to lean towards an agenda that suits them.
In my time as a journalist, I have seen more than my share of hate, racism and sometimes physical attacks.
People can be nasty, and downright ugly, but the truth is, I don’t hate Jews or Muslims. Heck, I don’t hate anyone. Life is so short, you are here today, gone tomorrow. Where is the time to hate?
What is heartbreaking for me though is that the Israel-Gaza war has gone beyond just the innocent lives that have been lost on both sides.
This war has fragmented families and pitted friends against each other. I have lost some Jewish and Muslim friends, who I have known for years, because of my personal opinion on the war.
Again, I don’t hate Jews or Muslims. As a matter of fact, some of my colleagues have been Jewish and among the nicest people I knew. Their kindness and caring attitude have always sent a warmth through my heart.
It didn’t matter if we had differing views on the conflict or the war, they were just civil and respectful. It costs you absolutely nothing to be nice to someone.
We live in a sad world, and in our broken society there are some who take joy in the misery of others. There is a term for that, schadenfreude.
It comes from the German words schaden and freude: damage and joy.
We used to dismiss this as simply an ugly side of human nature, but it is much more than that.
A Stanford professor actually captured schadenfreude on a brain scan.
It is a physiological medical phenomenon.
When we learn or witness the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another, it sometimes causes a chemical to be released in the dorsal striatum of the brain which actually causes us to feel pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction.
If you scratch the surface and go deep enough, a lot of “ugly things” emerge from the woodwork manifesting itself in many forms that can drive you the point of questioning your own identity.
Sadly, it is people who are behind this, those who hide behind benevolent characters and never seem to be other than ordinary.
Am I really who they say I am? Am I antisemitic or anti-Muslim? I guess it comes with the territory when you are a journalist.
Go against the norm, narrative or sentiment of what people want you to report on and you become the bad guy, with nasty labels being hurled by the quiet person in the corner who has not tweeted in 10 years, but now wants to have their say.
It’s the right of everyone to have an opinion, it’s what we call freedom of speech. But when this freedom extends to insults and hurtful comments, it manifests itself in every part of yourself and those close to you.
While I do not expect anybody to understand the challenges of being a journalist, you can understand my anger, frustration and sadness when people shift their target.
I am not looking for sympathy, or a pat on the back, but no matter who you are – and you could be the most emotionless person on earth – there is a degree of human behaviour that just irks you.
If you watched the 1996 movie A Time to Kill, based on the first novel by John Grisham, lawyer Jake Brigance probes the savage depths of racial violence.
In his brilliant closing argument during the murder trial, Brigance speaks of people of all races, religions and cultures seeing each other as equals.
“The eyes of the law are human eyes – yours and mine – and until we can see each other as equals, justice is never going to be evenhanded.
“It will remain nothing more than a reflection of our own prejudices, so until that day we have a duty under God to seek the truth, not with our eyes and not with our minds where fear and hate turn commonality into prejudice, but with our hearts – where we don’t know better,” he argued.
Many are hoping that Israel’s war in Gaza comes to an end as the loss of lives is a terrible heartbreak that will leave the world shattered for years to come.
ALSO READ: ‘There is no antisemitism in South Africa, it’s safe for Jews’ – Lamola
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