From Tablet Magazine:
In an unprecedented ground invasion that began on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Hamas terrorists entered Israel and murdered over 1,200 civilians and kidnapped 240 more to Gaza. This massacre—and the glee with which Hamas committed and publicized the murder, torture, and rape of civilians including women, children, and the elderly—is unprecedented in modern-day warfare. It also represents the single deadliest day for Jews in modern history since the Holocaust. At the time of this writing, 120 civilians remain in captivity. Gaza’s Ministry of Health, overseen by Hamas, has reported the deaths of over 39,000 Palestinians.
The massacre that unfolded was a devastating disruption of the euphoria synonymous with rave culture. Terrorists killed, raped, tortured, injured, and traumatized rave attendees at the Nova Festival in the south of Israel. It is important to recognize that a significant majority of more than 3,000 attendees who were subjected to horrific mass violence were also under the influence of substances that distorted their perceptions, delayed their responses, and made them disproportionately emotionally sensitive. This fact adds an important dimension to how we consider the needs of the survivors and the place this attack now holds in psychedelic history as the worst “trip” ever recorded.
A significant aspect of the Oct. 7 attacks that has received little news coverage is the fact that the massacre at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering (now more commonly known as the Nova Festival) was not only the largest terror attack in Israel’s history, and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever, it was also the largest psychedelics-related act of violence and the biggest massacre at a music festival in history.
The Nova Festival was an open-air psytrance music festival near kibbutz Re’im organized by the Tribe of Nova (A Little for the Soul Ltd.) together with the Brazilian psytrance festival group Universo Paralello. Billed as a celebration of “friends, love and infinite freedom,” it was scheduled to coincide with the final day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. As the sun rose on Oct. 7, amid the pulsing beats and vibrant atmosphere of the open air rave, Hamas invaded.
Sunrise was also the moment at which many rave participants had just begun to experience the full psychoactive effects of the psychedelic substances they had taken. At the same moment, Hamas invaded the festival premises and began shooting at participants, chasing them down the surrounding fields, raping them, and kidnapping them, festivalgoers were under the acute effects of drugs like 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), while running for their lives in an attempt to escape the terrorists.
The attack on the Nova Festival resulted in 364 civilians killed, at least 40 hostages taken, and many more assaulted and injured. It also led to a significant number of festivalgoers arriving at the emergency room who were still under the influence of psychedelics and therefore presenting medical teams with additional mental health needs. In the American psychedelic community’s only published account of the Nova massacre, author Mary-Elizabeth Gifford described the reaction of Dr. Roy Salomon who was among the first to be notified about the hundreds of patients who were arriving “tripping and distraught”:“When I saw that request for two helpers I said, well there were over 3,000 kids at this festival, we don’t just need two people to get over to an emergency room—we’re going to need hundreds of people to help,” said Salomon, who has received training by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) to provide MDMA-assisted psychotherapy during clinical trials. He said he reached out to the leaders of SafeZone and SafeShore, organizations that provide psychedelic harm reduction services. “I called two of my friends who are leaders of the harm reduction groups here who actually go to festivals.” It was immediately clear that clinicians and mental health practitioners were needed, and that it was essential “they understand psychedelics and trauma.”It quickly became clear to those tending to or preparing to care for survivors of the attack that care had to reflect the reality that participants had consumed psychedelics and that their trauma might be exacerbated by this fact....
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