The Psychology of Witnessing Suffering: From Gaza to Minneapolis

Like us, you may feel paralyzed in the face of relentless images of violence. Suffering children, military occupations, devastated neighborhoods, and the cries of parents mourning their dead—these scenes haunt us. Whether happening in Palestine or Minneapolis, we are witnesses to suffering, and that witnessing takes a heavy toll.

Similarities in Suffering, Different Scales

Even as the situations in the West Bank and Gaza and in Minneapolis differ significantly, particularly in the sheer number of casualties, psychological and systemic similarities exist. Many Americans have protested against both the violence in Gaza and actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis and other cities, but a common response is often helplessness.

Manufacturing Paralysis: The Role of Violence Normalization

Researchers in anthropology and political psychology understand why collective responses to extreme suffering often fail. Those who commit atrocities require the paralysis of others—and actively work to create it. Anthropological research demonstrates how political actors manipulate our instinct to gaze away from, yet also gawk at, violent acts, rendering us complicit, and helpless. This pattern has been observed in contexts ranging from the Guatemalan genocide to the ongoing situation in Palestine and ICE operations in Minnesota. The more we witness violence, the more normalized it becomes, shifting our engagement from opposition to mere observation.

Necropolitics and Expendable Lives

A critical question is what leads us to accept that certain lives are less worthy of protection, or that their deaths require no public outcry. Philosopher Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics highlights political situations where some lives are rendered expendable even before they are taken. Their deaths provoke little moral shock because they were already, in a sense, “dead” to us. Bodies, especially in large numbers, grow political performances.

Disproportionate Outrage and Dehumanization

As of early 2026, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s siege of Gaza, including over 20,000 children. Despite ceasefire agreements, Palestinian deaths continue. Often, this results in looking away instead of opposing such acts, and in some cases, even derision or humor regarding the deaths of Palestinian children.

In contrast, the 32 individuals who died in ICE custody in 2025, with at least 6 more deaths reported so far in 2026, represent violence on a smaller scale. While protests against ICE operations are common, public outrage increased after a second white American citizen died in ICE custody. This aligns with research showing how the criminalization of undocumented immigrants creates a category of expendable individuals for some Americans, a category that typically does not include white citizens.

Sanctioned Massacres and Dehumanization

Social psychologist Herbert Kelman identified conditions enabling “sanctioned massacres”—indiscriminate, ruthless violence carried out by military or paramilitary personnel against defenseless civilians. Israel’s actions in Gaza arguably meet this definition, unless one accepts the Israeli government’s assertion that “there are no innocent Palestinians.” Kelman maintained that dehumanization of victims is crucial for such massacres. When a group is no longer seen as human, blame can be entirely attributed to them.

A similar process of demonization is evident in the U.S., with increased labeling of those killed by ICE as “criminals” or “terrorists” without evidence. This framing has a significant psychological impact.

The Cycle of Brutalization and Blame

Dehumanization is not merely theoretical; it’s a lived reality. Increased violence and dispossession diminish how human a group appears to others. The more brutalized they become, the less compelled we feel to stop the brutality, often provoking disgust rather than sympathy.

In this dynamic, blame is often redirected. When people are blamed for their own suffering, sympathy decreases, and help is less likely to be offered. Dehumanized individuals are often seen as responsible for their own plight, justifying atrocities committed against them.

The Heart of Necropolitics

In colonial dehumanization, people are killed not for what they’ve done, but for who they are. This is the core of necropolitics: the leverage of state-sanctioned violence to erase a people physically, politically, and morally.

Breaking the Paralysis

The paralysis many feel, and the inability to act in the face of mass death, is not accidental. It is engineered through dehumanization, blame redistribution, and the normalization of violence. Atrocity depends on our remaining frozen, unable to move from witness to actor.

To break this paralysis, we must directly confront the violence and name it for what it is. Only then can we refuse the passive role designed for us and reclaim our full humanity.