Violent collective trauma profoundly disrupts political worldviews, yet community responses vary significantly. While some disengage or radicalize, others move toward engagement and reconciliation. The mechanisms driving these divergent political pathways remain undertheorized. This study examines the impact of traumatic political violence on survivors’ political attitudes and behaviors within a prolonged conflict, focusing on Jewish and Bedouin communities victimized during the October 7 massacre.

The research compares how right-wing and left-wing, as well as religious and secular affected communities, perceive their representation in government and the functioning of their democracy. A central question concerns how varying levels of exposure to extreme violence influence hope for reconciliation, community recovery, and trust in government and the army, and how these factors subsequently affect political behavior.

Data collection employed a mixed-methods design. Semi-structured interviews with 51 participants (Summer 2024) explored personal narratives, trauma, and sources of hope. Initial findings suggest that collective trauma arises not only from the extreme violence of October 7th but also from a profound sense of abandonment by governmental and military institutions, exacerbated by prolonged displacement. Complementing this, an online and phone survey (N = 495), conducted in Spring 2025 across kibbutzim, moshavim, and development towns with varying violence exposure, assessed hope, trust, political attitudes, social cohesion, PTSD symptoms, and post-traumatic growth.

Together, the findings shed light on how communities coping with mass trauma in an ongoing conflict renegotiate trust, political attitudes, and the social contract with the state.