Bearing Witness to Whats Happening in Palestine Without Shutting Down: Sacred Practices for Processing Collective Grief

Written By Connection Matters - Leona Johnson

When the world feels broken, your sensitivity isn't a weakness—it's exactly what's needed

How do we stay grounded and not completely shut down while being aware of and watching such immense suffering unfold in front of us? How do we honour our privilege without drowning in guilt? How do we stay connected to our own healing journey while acknowledging the collective trauma happening in our world?

These are the questions that have been weighing heavily on my heart and, I suspect, on many of yours too. We're living through something unprecedented in human history, we're witnessing what many are calling a televised genocide in real-time, and it's forcing us to grapple with realities we've never had to face before.

I'm sharing this not to overwhelm you or make you feel hopeless, but because I believe that conscious, caring people like you have the power to make a difference. And you can't make a meaningful difference without understanding the truth of what's happening.

This isn't your typical Connection Matters content, it covers difficult topics including genocide, violence, and collective grief. But it's called Connection Matters because I truly believe that part of being human in this world today is being able to acknowledge, feel, grieve, honour, despair collectively, process, take action, and be in relationship with life in all its messy, painful reality. In this instance, I'm focusing on what's happening in Palestine right now, because we have never as a species had to be subjected to a televised genocide.

The Reality We're Facing

Let me start by sharing what prompted this conversation. I've just come through a few weeks of recovery after a hospital procedure that left me feeling super vulnerable, tender, and in a lot of pain. During this time, when I was at my most raw, I found myself tuning in more and more to what's happening in Palestine. And there was this strange paradox, in each moment that I felt rock bottom with my own struggles, I was simultaneously aware of my relative privilege: my safety, my opportunities, the healthcare available to me, my home, and my freedom.

In some ways, bearing witness to the reports and the reality of what millions of people are experiencing right now in Gaza and the West Bank has kept me feeling awake and alert. I really sit with myself and ask: how could I possibly be drowning in my own self-pity while knowing this is going on in the world? But of course, I know it's not always that simple.

We have never, as a species, had to be subjected to a live-streamed genocide. Never before have we had this level of real-time access to such systematic brutality. And that's doing something to us. For those who choose to watch, it's awakening something in our nervous systems that we don't quite know how to handle. And because there are many who don't really know what's happening, it's creating divisions between us. If you have been struggling with things recently, I just want to acknowledge that this is in the field. It's no wonder, with this and all the other world craziness, that we as sentient connected beings are feeling it.

Understanding What We're Really Witnessing

Before I go any further, I want to be clear about something. What's happening in Gaza right now is not a justified response to the horrific attacks on October 7th. It's not a reaction, but rather a continuation and escalation of something that's been going on for decades. What we are seeing now is not new, it's the logical outcome of years of heavily funded militarism, international complicity, and a system that has been dehumanising Palestinian people for far too long.

Now, I do acknowledge the pain and trauma that exists for Jewish and Israeli people, and I absolutely stand against the loss of life anywhere. The 1,200 people whose lives were brutally taken on October 7th deserved to live. There is no justification for murder. But I want to avoid framing this as if it's a conflict between two sides with equal power or equal responsibility, because that would be misleading and deeply unjust. This is about an occupying force wielding massive military power, with the backing of powerful allies, against a largely defenceless population that has been caged, dispossessed, and brutalised for generations.

And I want to be absolutely clear, what I am saying is not against Jewish people. But I also need to name that Israel is not simply a nation-state like any other. It's a highly militarised system built on taking land from people who were already living there. And while some Israelis are resisting this system with immense bravery, many others are not passive bystanders. Many actively uphold and benefit from a system that treats different ethnic groups completely differently, almost like a caste system, and is rooted in an ideology that sees domination as necessary for survival.

This is not about pointing fingers at individuals, but about naming the reality of power, complicity, and the brutal machinery of colonisation that so many are caught in, some resisting, some enforcing, and many living with the consequences.

Those who have lived in fear for their lives for generations, who don't know what it feels like to be at rest, at ease, safe, regulated, comfortable with a future in front of them that includes harmony and peace, they will carry the burden of this disconnection sickness forever. And in case it's not clear, this includes Holocaust survivors and their descendants who carry unimaginable trauma, and young people on all sides who have inherited this pain. But we can't let the concept of trauma cloud our understanding of who has power and who doesn't. Trauma doesn't excuse systematic oppression, and healing it doesn't replace the need for justice.

What's Happening Now

What's happening now is devastating beyond comprehension. As of early 2025, more than 61,700 Palestinians had been killed, including over 17,000 children, representing roughly 2.5% of Gaza's entire pre-war population. A Lancet study found that official figures likely undercount deaths by 41%, suggesting the true toll may exceed 70,000. And this was at the start of the year.

The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S. and Israeli-backed initiative, operates just four food distribution sites for the entire population of Gaza. This limited access exists largely because other, more neutral aid organisations have been blocked from operating, including the UN. The Foundation, heavily criticised by international humanitarian groups for its militarised and politicised model, functions under the watch of Israeli forces, who, according to multiple reports, have been ordered to deliberately fire on unarmed Palestinians waiting for food. At least 549 people have been killed and over 4,000 injured while simply trying to access food aid through this system. In June 2025 alone, Israeli soldiers killed at least 410 civilians at these distribution points, using live rounds, tank shells, and drone-mounted weapons. Rather than providing safety and relief, this so-called "humanitarian" system is deepening the crisis and weaponising survival itself.

UN officials have called this "the weaponisation of food" and stated that desperate, hungry people in Gaza face "the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food." Doctors Without Borders described these aid distribution sites as "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid." This means that in Gaza today, the very act of seeking food to survive has become potentially deadly.

The British and American and other governments who are supplying weapons and military aid are complicit with the Israeli government in this violence. My tax-paying pounds are funding this. My government in the UK plans to treat acts of creative resistance as terrorism—as we've seen in deeply disturbing moves, when they charged Mo Chara, a member of the Irish rap group Kneecap, with terrorism, not for acts of violence, but for publicly expressing solidarity with victims of state violence in Gaza, highlighting how anti-genocide expression is now being treated as a criminal offence. Meanwhile, our state-controlled media is more and more acting as a propaganda tool for genocide.

Take a breath with me here. I see you staying present with this difficult information, and that matters more than you know. Stick with me and we will talk about ways we can transmute some of this.

My Experience in Gaza: A Window Into the Past

I also want to tell you why this is particularly important to me and give a small insight into how things have gotten to this point. Fifteen years ago, I went to Gaza to work with children affected by trauma, and at the time, whilst I knew a little, I was super naive. I had no real idea about the history, and what I learnt whilst there really shocked me.

So let me paint a picture of my eyewitness account. What I saw then really opened my eyes. The land at that time in October 2010 was already a war zone. Food was already limited. Entrance and exit to Gaza was already blocked and had been for years, it was surrounded by a fence. It was the biggest open-air prison that has ever existed: approximately 1.6 million people, with about three-quarters of them women and children, held by force against their will, without trial or representation or the necessities needed to live a humane life.

The electricity was rationed by Israel. Sometimes they would only get a few hours of electricity a day, turned off and on at will by external powers. They were not allowed to fish. They were not allowed to tend to or harvest their olives on the edge lands. They were shot at if they tried. Their hospitals and water infrastructure had been bombed. Supplies and resources were not allowed through the borders.

The way they had been surviving this was that food and supplies had been coming in through tunnels, large tunnels, hundreds of them. These were their lifeline. When I was there, I visited them. I have been in one.

Everyone knows these tunnels exist. They are the only reason that the people of Gaza have survived this brutal regime for so long. But in order for the tunnels to be tolerated by the authorities in this abuser/victim regime, they had to accept sporadic and life-threatening targeting by the Israeli military.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what that would do to your mind if you had to live like that, knowing that at any time, while you're trying to work to bring in supplies for the country, you could be targeted by bombs or snipers or drones at any time? And what would it do to your mind if you were the young soldier on the other side, tasked with sporadically targeting the occasional person or tunnel just to keep the enemy "in check"?

Young soldiers who are currently enrolled in the Israeli military, mostly young people trained by systems that have taught them to dehumanise those they are fighting, I can only imagine that they will live with a part of their soul damaged forever. I'm not condemning these young people; I'm grieving for them. They are products of a system that has shaped them, often against their deepest nature. The ripples of these actions will seep out into their lives and futures forever.

Historical Context: How We Got Here

If you've stayed with me this far and want to understand more about the historical roots of what we're witnessing, here's some context that helps explain how we arrived at this moment before we go on to look at what we can do.

This situation, as you might know, has deep historical roots that go back to 1917 with the Balfour Declaration, when Britain declared its support for establishing a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. But there's something important to understand about this, the Balfour Declaration wasn't actually born out of solidarity with Jewish people; it was born out of antisemitic thinking and colonial strategy. Arthur Balfour himself didn't want Jews in Europe, he saw Palestine as a solution to a 'Jewish problem,' not a humanitarian gesture. This wasn't about creating peace; it was about European imperial powers using people as pawns, whilst completely ignoring the fact that Palestinian people were already living there.

Then, following World War II, in 1947, the United Nations, after Britain announced it would terminate its mandate, passed Resolution 181, recommending the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. You might say this was a response to the horrific tragedy of the Holocaust, a thoughtful gesture to help survivors. And indeed, many of the early Jewish settlers were themselves refugees fleeing unimaginable persecution and death. They were seeking safety and survival, often with nowhere else to go.

However, what happened has amplified the trauma and utter depravity of what the people in concentration camps endured, and now we are faced with something so awful. The tragedy is that the policies implemented by colonial powers and later governments turned victims into participants in a system that displaced others and in turn created the situations we have today. This doesn't make individual settlers evil people, it makes them part of a tragic cycle where trauma begets trauma.

But here's the thing, regardless of individual intentions or circumstances, no matter how good and well-deserving a person or people are of a safe and good place to live (and all humans deserve that), there really is no justification for displacing other people from their homes and land by force. Moving people off their family land, those who have been there for generations, was never going to end well, was it? Even with good intentions, even with genuine need for safety, the systematic displacement of a people creates its own cycle of trauma and resistance, the result of which we are seeing today.

What we're seeing in Gaza now is part of a wider global pattern of indigenous peoples being displaced, dehumanised, and denied sovereignty. This is one of the most extreme and visible expressions of colonisation that we can see happening right now in the world.

So this leaves us with a heartbreaking situation. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli people, people who may have been born there now, people whose parents were maybe born there, are living within a system that perpetuates the suffering of a whole population of others, of Palestinians. I cannot imagine how that must feel for those who recognise the injustice of this but feel trapped within it. And in some ways, you can understand why complete denial of the reality of the situation has been opted for in the psyche of the masses.

Many Israelis are speaking out though, protesting, refusing military service, or leaving the country because they cannot bear to be part of this system. Others are caught between their own safety and survival and their conscience. I have deep compassion for anyone trapped in systems that force them to choose between their humanity and their security.

But the Palestinian people have lived under brutal colonisation, apartheid, and siege for more than 70 years. What is happening now is not about shared trauma between two sides, but about a deeply unequal system of domination and erasure that has only gotten worse and worse over time.

Let me share a real-life example of how this looks on a day-to-day basis on the ground, that was shared with me when I was in Gaza. We were being shown around by the education minister for Palestine, an elected official who took the time to take us to schools, projects, and sites of interest.

One of the stories he told was at a bridge. He told us that as a young man, when the Israeli army was still inside Gaza, there were checkpoints. He lived on one side and the university was on the other. He told us that in order to get from one side to the other, he often had to do things like take all of his clothes off and dance naked in front of the soldiers, just to get to university, this was the gauntlet he had to run.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what this has done to the people who underwent that treatment? And can you imagine what this did to the people who were trained and ordered to inflict that? This gross misconception of power. A traumatised, paranoid, fear-driven culture, shaped and misguided by systems intent on maintaining control through division and dehumanisation. Such terrible tragic irony.

So What Do We Do?

I know this is heavy, and you might be feeling powerless and hopeless right now. Let's take a breath together and move toward what we can actually do about this.

Well, if you have listened to my account this far, that is one step towards being in connection with what is happening. And whilst you might think that is nothing, it is not.

Whilst I mostly advocate for turning off the news, especially all the bullshit politics and lies, for your own sanity and salvation, I also advocate for taking time and space to acknowledge what cannot be ignored.

Shutting down to trauma is not going to transmute it.

If you have listened this far, you may be feeling powerless and hopeless, but I would say that is not true.

You Matter More Than You Know

You, as someone who cares, matter greatly. You, as someone who is trying to heal your own traumas and become a more conscious being in this lifetime so it doesn't get passed on and ripple through the generations, are contributing greatly.

You who are trying to raise your children or positively influence the lives of others using the privilege of your safety and opportunity in the best way you can are contributing greatly. You who are trying to find a way to be in service to life, whether through your work or through your consumer choices or the way you speak to people, you are contributing greatly.

You who are choosing connection over disconnection, love over hate, hope over fear, intention and choice over powerlessness are contributing greatly. We are part of a greater whole. And we certainly don't make anyone or anything else feel or do better by making ourselves or anyone else feel worse. So acknowledge yourself for doing your best right now and let's explore what else we can do.

Practical Ways to Stay Grounded

Here's what I've learnt about how to stay grounded while witnessing collective trauma:

1. Create Sacred Time and Space for Processing

As a group of people who understand the interconnected web of all things, and knowing that many Palestinian people are very spiritual and depend on their own beliefs, I would advocate for this being a time where we really dig deep.

Whether you call it prayer or intention, wishing or dreaming, I invite you, as I am doing, to try to give some time to be with it. Be with this pain. As we've talked about in other episodes on creating ritual and intention, and you can flick back to be reminded of these, but try to mark a sacred time and space for yourself to be with this, with a clear beginning and end, and do something that is meaningful to you.

It might be going to the river or reservoir or sea and offering your longings for peace. It might be lighting a candle for five minutes every night and sending out your prayers for peace. It might be writing in your journal all of your gratitudes, followed by all of your fears and sadnesses, followed again by gratitude. Always acknowledge gratitude, it's what keeps us connected to the web of life and helps us stay connected to the beauty and magic as well as the pain.

Here's a simple practice you can try: Set a timer for 10 minutes. Light a candle or sit in a peaceful space. Take a few deep breaths. Hold the situation in your heart, not trying to fix it, but simply being present with it, maybe sending out pulses of connection to those who are in fear, send out your communication that you are in a small way with them, remembering them. Send out intentions for peace, healing, and the end of suffering for all people. Then spend the last few minutes acknowledging one thing you're grateful for in your own life and really allow that in. It's okay to be grateful for the safety of your family or your health even whilst others cannot be. It's actually more important to acknowledge. And breathe. Just keep breathing.

2. Stay Informed, But Protect Your Energy

If you are a sensitive being, which, let's face it, we all are if given the chance, don't get sucked into the news and the repetition of pain being fed into your brain and thoughts. That's not going to help, and it's not the kind of informed that I am talking about.

If you want to know what's going on, check trusted sources occasionally. I watch Al Jazeera sometimes (especially their Gaza and Middle East reporting, one of the few major outlets with a physical presence in Gaza and a long track record of covering the region), or I follow the aid agencies-Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). You can watch Democracy Now which offers daily news with in-depth interviews. Often features activists, historians, and legal experts that mainstream news ignores. I will link these in the blog on my website.

But don't fill your scrolling time with the pain. It is not the kind of energetic input that is going to help you stay balanced and in flow, and we need you to do that.

Here's what trauma-informed activism looks like: Choose one or two reliable sources. Check them once or twice a week, not multiple times daily. Set a time limit, maybe 15-20 minutes maximum. After consuming news, do something grounding, go outside, call a friend, or do something creative. Remember: staying informed doesn't mean drowning in information.

3. Take Action Where You Can

There are practical things you can do. Again, I'll put links in the show notes, but here are some options: boycott Israeli goods and those companies that profit from or provide the infrastructure for the occupation (e.g., tech companies), support people who are speaking out and being persecuted for it, sign petitions, attend rallies and marches if that's your thing.

The BDS movement provides clear guidance on which companies to target, you can visit bdsmovement.net to see their current priority list, or download the Boycott app to scan products when you're shopping. They focus on strategic, targeted boycotts rather than trying to boycott everything, because that's what's proven most effective historically, just look at how economic pressure helped end apartheid in South Africa.

Marching and rallying can help you be in community with others and has been good support for me in the past, but it isn't at the moment, and that's fine with me. I'm doing my best to stay afloat myself at the moment with my health and raising two children. We can't all do everything, and I am really not being flippant. You choose you, choose what you can do, ceremony, awareness, do not overwhelm yourself. It's not helpful.

You can also donate to certain trusted organisations that are helping people to get food or medical aid. Some examples are MSF or Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

The key is to choose actions that feel authentic and sustainable to you. Maybe it's having conversations with friends and family. Maybe it's supporting Palestinian-owned businesses or buying Palestinian goods. Maybe it's learning more so you can speak knowledgeably about the situation. Maybe it's using your professional skills in service somehow. Trust yourself to know what feels right for your circumstances.

4. Remember Your Own Healing Is Part of Collective Healing

Consciousness matters. Thoughts, rituals, doing our own healing and self-care matter so much. Your individual healing work ripples out. Your commitment to staying conscious, to choosing love over fear, to remaining open-hearted in the face of horror, this matters more than you know.

When you're processing your own trauma, learning to regulate your nervous system, practising healthy boundaries, developing your capacity for presence and compassion, all of this contributes to the healing of the collective field. We become part of the solution simply by refusing to shut down, by choosing to stay awake and responsive.

This isn't spiritual bypassing, it's understanding that we can't pour from an empty cup, and the world needs us to be resourced, grounded, and whole.

Why I'm Sharing This

I am doing this because I am sad. I am despairing. Many people who I met in Gaza have lost their lives. Good Jewish people living in other parts of the world are also despairing. Israeli peace activists are being silenced and persecuted. Palestinian families are being destroyed. This is not Judeophobic to say. This is human grief for all the unnecessary suffering.

The Power of Connection

Talk about it with others. Share this post. Remind people that you care and you know they care and that this is horrible. This being in our field of existence is unacceptable. Be in connection. Don't shut down.

Connection is our antidote to despair. When we witness collective trauma, our instinct might be to shut down, to protect ourselves by turning away. But what I've learnt, both personally and professionally, is that conscious connection- to ourselves, to each other, to the larger web of life- is what keeps us sane and allows us to be of service.

This includes connection with all people affected by this tragedy, Palestinians who are suffering unimaginably, Israelis who are horrified by what's being done in their name, Jewish people around the world who are being blamed for actions they don't support, and anyone whose heart is breaking watching this unfold.

An Invitation to Learn More

If you're still feeling a bit unsure about the roots of all this, one very accessible and powerful way to deepen your understanding is to watch a four-part Channel 4 drama series called The Promise.

It was made in 2011, so it's over a decade old now, but it offers a compelling, human-centred depiction of what happened in 1947 during the British Mandate of Palestine.

The story runs on two parallel timelines: one follows a modern British teenager who travels to Israel with her Israeli friend, who is about to begin her compulsory military service. While there, the teen begins reading the diary of her grandfather, a former British soldier stationed in Palestine during the final years of British rule.

As the series unfolds, the two storylines intertwine, past and present reflecting and echoing one another, and it gives a powerful, emotional insight into the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It's not a documentary, but it's a very human, thoughtful, and relatively balanced portrayal that helps make sense of how we got here.

Your Tender Heart Is What the World Needs

As we close, I want to remind you that your caring matters. Your consciousness matters. Your willingness to stay present with difficult truths matters. In a world that often rewards us for looking away, for staying comfortable, for pretending everything is fine, your courage to bear witness is an act of love.

The people of Palestine, the people of Israel, all people caught in cycles of violence and trauma—they need us to stay awake. Not to become overwhelmed and paralysed, but to stay awake and responsive and connected.

And remember, part of staying connected means taking care of yourself. It means honouring your own needs while also honouring the larger web of life you're part of. It means finding ways to be of service that feel sustainable and authentic to you.

Whether that's through prayer, through action, through conscious parenting, through your work in the world, through your commitment to your own healing, it all matters. You all matter.

If you've been feeling isolated in your grief about what's happening, if you've been struggling to know how to process these feelings, if you're tired of feeling like you have to choose between staying informed and protecting your mental health, you're not alone.

Listen to the full podcast episode "How to Stay Grounded While Witnessing Collective Trauma" where I dive even deeper into these practices and share more of my personal experience and insights.

And if you're feeling called to process these feelings in community, join us for our Online Peace Circle on July 13th-a sacred space where we can hold our grief, rage, hope, and everything in between, together. We'll use Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects to create a safe container for navigating these overwhelming times with others who understand.

Thank you for reading this far. Thank you for your willingness to stay present with difficult truths. And thank you for being part of this community of people who believe that connection matters, especially when it's hard.

Until next time, keep choosing connection over disconnection, love over fear, and presence over paralysis. The world needs your tender, awake heart.

Resources & Action: Where to Go From Here

If you're ready to take meaningful action or want to learn more, here are the specific resources mentioned throughout this post:

Stay Informed (Trusted Sources):

Take Economic Action:

  • BDS Movement - Strategic boycott guidance and current priority targets

  • Boycott App - Scan products while shopping to check company involvement

Support Palestinian Relief:

Deepen Your Understanding:

  • "The Promise" - Four-part Channel 4 drama series (2011) available on streaming platforms

  • Search for "The Promise 2011 Channel 4" to find current viewing options

Join Our Community:

Choose what feels sustainable for you. Small, consistent actions create lasting change.

Connection Matters - Leona Johnson https://www.leonajohnson.life
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