Editor’s Notes: The hostage as influencer and the commodification of emotion
The story of Israel’s new celebrities is, in the end, the story of a society that refuses to look away from its trauma, yet also cannot bear to stare at it directly for too long.
Taking control of the narrative is, for many survivors a form of therapy and a form of revenge. Hamas tried to erase them. Standing on a stage and saying “this is what they did to me and this is why we must bring the others home” is the opposite of erasure. (photo credit: Collage: Gemini AI)ByZVIKA KLEIN
