IDF soldiers turn to somatic yoga to heal from 'trauma' of world's reaction to their genocide

A segment on Israeli news channel i24 has gone viral after showing Israeli soldiers practising yoga to heal from trauma — including, explicitly, trauma caused by the world's condemnation of their actions in Gaza.

The journalist presenting the piece explains: "PTSD is something real that many are going through, not just from combat, not just from October 7th and the war, but also the impact of the world reaction to the war and the situation here in Israel."

Let that sink in. Soldiers participating in a genocidal war that has killed over 70,000 Palestinians, displaced millions, and systematically destroyed hospitals, schools, and refugee camps are being offered yoga — and a primetime news segment — to cope with the stress of people being angry about it.

This aired one day after a UN inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza, with findings amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Israel rejected the findings as defamatory.

The internet, predictably, had no patience for it.

"POV: we live in a world where news channels report stories of murderers suffering from the consequences of committing murder, while ignoring the suffering of the murdered and their families, to try and swap the identity of victim and perpetrator," wrote one user, in a comment that spread rapidly.

"Devils cannot be saved with yoga," said another.

"This is interesting. I wonder what it must feel like to live in such deep cognitive dissonance," offered a third.

One commenter, drawing on personal experience, put it most precisely: "I know from being in prison that while it is true that the oppressor and oppressed both experience trauma, but to center and highlight this is disgraceful and dehumanizing all around. It's also a distraction."

And a distraction is exactly what it is. While a news channel platform is given over to soldiers processing their feelings about bad press, the children of Gaza have no yoga sessions, no primetime segments, no rehabilitation programmes. Many have no parents. Many have no limbs. Many have nothing at all.

"{Black Mirror intensifies}" wrote one commenter. Honestly? They were not wrong.