Degrees of Detachment
The Sumud Flotilla of some 40 boats with 500 people on board
from 47 countries, including Pakistan, attempted to get to Gaza in a symbolic
gesture to highlight the need to get aid to besieged Palestinians. “When the World
Stays Silent, We Set Sail” states the Sumud website. The participants were everyday
people—organizers, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy and lawyers. Sumud
is a Palestinian term for steadfastness. This was the latest and largest of
several flotillas from 2010, during which many lost their lives, were
imprisoned or deported by Israeli authorities.
The heroic nature of sailing fragile boats across the
Mediterranean Sea to save a people in impossible conditions, is not lost given
the legendary history of this sea traversed by heroes like Odysseus, Theseus
and Jason with his Argonauts. Is this a new
generation of the Sea Peoples of 1177 BC that brought down the powerful empires
of the Bronze Age?
Fanciful speculation aside, this attempt stands in sharp
contrast to the silence of world governments that were once quick to support
and protect the people of East Timor, Bosnia and the civilians of many other
conflict zones. What is seen today is a cultivated detachment from the
sufferings of Palestinian people, despite world-wide public protests.
There are many degrees of detachment, from emotional
numbness often due to childhood trauma that presents as social withdrawal, to
Intellectual detachment considered necessary to focus on logic and reason over
emotion. The philosophers Nietzsche, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud came to be
known as the three "masters of suspicion" for adopting a form of
intellectual detachment to seek hidden truths.
Soldiers in war zones may "switch off" their
emotions, to protect themselves from being overwhelmed by horrifying events, allowing
them to focus on mission demands. Emotional detachment during combat is linked
to an increased risk of developing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),
especially in the recent wars of dubious moral standing in Afghanistan and the
Middle East. Stories of PTSD experienced by Israel’s IDF soldiers sent on a
mission of ghastly genocide, are trickling in.
Detachment may be recommended by psychologists as necessary
for emotional survival during upheavals – personal or societal. People set
boundaries for emotional self-protection when faced with problems they cannot
solve, stepping back from harmful situations or relationships.
Sufis attain a specific form of detachment known as zuhd
(renunciation) or non-attachment, so that the love of God can replace the love
of worldly desires. Doctors cultivate compassionate detachment in order to
treat patients many of whom arrive in great emotional or physical distress.
Creative people reflect the duality of feeling deeply while taking a position
of detachment to devise formal poetic structures to express intense emotions.
Detachment is mostly seen as an emotional and physical
disconnect and a lack of empathy. The wealthy elite develop a detachment from
poverty. Racial detachment can be as extreme as apartheid and
segregation, or subconsciously internalized as when the death of someone we
know is shocking and tragic, while that of a stranger is met with apathy and
indifference.
Artist Clare Patey created an art event, A Mile in My Shoes,
to encourage empathy, where visitors are invited to walk a mile in the shoes of
a stranger while listening to their story.
The greatest irony of the systematic genocide in Palestine
is the living memory of the dehumanizing of Jews in many European countries where
they were classed as "subhuman", allowing detachment from the
horrific treatment meted out to them. Today, as the same dehumanizing of
Palestinians takes place in full view of the world, there is no hiding behind
the famous postwar excuse, "Davon haben wir nichts gewusst" ("We
knew nothing about that").
Yet many feel compelled to detach from the unending horror
in Gaza. A blogger writes about the genocide “I cannot cope really, I stopped
watching the news because I felt like I cannot really do anything”.
Arundati Roy speaking to Mehdi Hasan says ‘We reach for a
glass of water while watching Gaza thirsting and facing death. We are forced to
lead our daily lives, eat our food, go to school, have some moments of
happiness, while we are watching this unfold in front of us”. She also warns that inaction could conversely
lead to an attitude of “Hey, if they can do it, why not us?”
Detachment is no longer an option, even if it translates as
raising one’s voice as so many across the world have.
Dr Mahmoud Abu Najaula, who died in an Israeli air strike on
the hospital he worked at in Gaza, wrote on a whiteboard used for planning
surgeries “Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we
could. Remember us.”
Durriya Kazi
October 4, 2025
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