The ongoing, multi-front war Israel has been fighting since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, is taking a heavy toll on Israeli society.
Besides obvious dangers such as rockets and suicide drones, war-induced inflation has hit pockets of ordinary Israelis quite hard, while the nation’s collective mental health has been anything but stable.
These developments have slowly been leading to an evolution in Israeli culture.
With the war now entering its second year, ISRAEL21c compiled a list of the most significant changes in the behavior of Israeli citizens.
Volunteering
The October 7 attacks and the subsequent war have transformed the volunteering landscape in Israel.
In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, a staggering 50% of Israelis reported volunteering, according to a study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The study showed that 28% of the Arab sector enlisted as volunteers to help in the rehabilitation efforts.
The last time volunteering figures resembled these numbers was during the Covid-19 pandemic when 33% of Israelis reported volunteering.
A year into the war that figure may not be as high, but volunteering initiatives continue to emerge consistently.
In fact, a report from July 2024, showed that volunteers saved Israel’s agricultural sector at least $50 million worth of produce over the past year.
Bumper stickers
Bumper stickers with political slogans were all the rage in Israel in the late 1990s and early 2000s, inspiring Hadag Nahash’s 2004 hit “The Sticker Song,” with lyrics made up entirely of Israel’s most popular bumper sticker slogans.
Fast forward exactly 20 years, and bumper stickers reading “The nation stands with the Golan” are once again adorning the Israeli street, just like they did during the First Lebanon War, when Israel’s north was getting hammered by Katyusha rockets.
New bumper sticker initiatives have been emerging as well.
The Stickers of Meaning project, created by US-born Israeli lawyer Jeffrey Weiss, intends to collect and present in one central repository stickers that were created by family and friends of those who lost their loved ones since the start of the war.
Many of these stickers, which can appear on anything from cars, to signs at beauty spots, are memorials, most feature young men and women, and many are deeply meaningful.
Music
The October 7 attacks had a direct connection to music. The biggest massacre of that day was the murder of nearly 400 people attending the Supernova festival. Some of the victims were professional musicians.
All wars have anthem songs.
Songs that reflect the pain of the nation but also give comfort and uplift.
Over the past year, dozens of musical projects have emerged, commemorating those who have fallen since the start of the war. The beat of war also made its way to Israel’s pop music. In fact, hip-hop duo Ness and Stilla’s “Harbu Darbu” became the country’s biggest hit of 2023.
The song promises revenge on Israel’s enemies who played a role in the October 7 attacks, namechecking senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh; head of Hamas’s military wing Mohammed Deif; and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The hit track is now part of national folklore, especially since all those mentioned in the song have been eliminated over the past year. This prompted many Israelis to jokingly suggest the IDF is operating based on “Ness and Stilla’s elimination list.”
Exhibitions
Despite the country still officially being in a state of war, unique art projects and exhibitions continue to pop up all over Israel.
Some of the exhibitions are dedicated entirely to the October 7 attacks, while others are all-inclusive art events meant to boost morale. All of them, however, have a theme related to the war in some way.
The latest example is the annual Jerusalem Arts Festival, which this year will include works by 150 artists, each expressing their unique conceptualization of the current security situation.
Also, there is the “Masterpieces” exhibition at the Mishkan Museum of Art in Kibbutz Ein Harod, which showcases works by Israeli creatives who have been experiencing international boycotts over the past year due to the war. The exhibition is scheduled to run until March 2025.
Films and TV
Over the past year, a wave of documentaries has been released, each telling the story of the October 7 attacks from a different perspective.
Some of these films are on YouTube, such as VICE’s “Surviving Nova,” while others can be streamed on various digital platforms.
There’s “We Will Dance Again” detailing the music festival massacre, “One Day in October,” focusing on the horrors that took place in Kibbutz Be’eri, “After October 7,” which sheds light on battered Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Sheryl Sandberg’s “Screams Before Silence,” and many more.
It was also reported earlier this year that “Fauda” cocreators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharov are writing a script for a film detailing the Hamas attacks.
Shopping
The war has placed Israelis in a position somewhat similar to the dark times of Covid-19 lockdowns. Most international airlines are not flying to Israel due to security concerns, and many once-popular tourist spots within the country are now closed military zones.
Many Israelis are therefore stuck at home, watching the news 24/7, and shopping is an easy distraction.
Moreover, given how much local businesses have suffered from the fall off in tourism and the many staff members called up to military reserves, there’s also a strong movement within Israel to buy blue and white, making shopping an act of patriotic support.
Local wines, beers, clothes, home items – you name it, people are buying it. You’ll even find Tel Avivians driving down to the south to buy their food in local supermarkets there, or have coffee and cake in a Sderot or kibbutz café, before the return trip.
According to a recent report, the country’s biggest shopping center saw a significant increase in sales and revenue in the first half of 2024. Azrieli Group, which owns 13 shopping malls in Israel, saw its sales increase by 11 percent compared to the same period last year, and net profits increased by 20%.
Melisron, which manages 18 major malls across Israel, reported a 7% boost in the number of visitors compared to the same time last year, and a 44% increase in net profit.
Smoking
Not all cultural changes are positive. Smoking, for instance, is on the rise.
Many Israelis are resorting to cigarettes to alleviate feelings of stress, anxiety and depression over the prolonged war.
According to last month’s National Institute for Health Policy Research report, 21.1% of Israel’s adult population (ages 16-74) are now smoking on a regular basis. In 2022, that figure stood at 17.9%.
The latest data suggests that men are twice as likely to be smokers than women.
More openness to mental health help
According to the same Health Policy Research report, since 2022 there has been a 6% increase in the number of Israelis taking antidepressants.
Additionally, a study published this January in eClinicalMedicine found that clinically verified anxiety and depression among Israeli adults increased by over 15% since the start of the war.
The good news is that Israelis appear to be aware of their mental health struggles, and don’t shy away from seeking help.
NATAL – the Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center reported in July that since the start of the war, calls to their helpline have increased by 180% compared to 2022. The increase has been driven by soldiers, both regular duty troops and reservists, since NATAL oversees the Defense Ministry’s mental health hotline.
ERAN – Emotional First Aid by Telephone & Internet reported in April nearly a 1000% increase in calls from Israelis suffering from anxiety. ERAN said the increase is driven primarily by teenagers and soldiers.
More awareness about disabilities
Fourteen months of ground war on seven fronts takes a toll on a whole generation of young men.
According to the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department, the overall number of disabled IDF soldiers has surpassed 70,000. Before October 7, 2023, that figure stood at 62,000. This means that over 8,000 soldiers have been added to that list over the past year.
While the government is laying out long-term plans on how to help the disabled troops, private companies have already started taking initiatives.
Delta, a popular Israeli clothing brand, recently launched an adaptive underwear line, ADAPTIX, for male and female amputees.
Additionally, Israeli fashion chains Renuar and Fox recently used disabled soldiers as models for their latest campaigns.
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