Gaza – Kijów – Warszawa: wspólna sprawa? O empatycznej i zaangażowanej praktyce socjologicznej
Gaza – Kyiv – Warsaw: One Cause, One Struggle? Empathy, Engagement, and Sociological Practice

Summary/Abstract: This essay addresses the problem of engaged and empathetic sociological practice in the face of contemporary crises, focusing on the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A key figure in the sociological reflection undertaken in this text is the ambiguous role of the observer and the “implicated subject” described by Michael Rothberg (2019), introduced into the essay through historical references to witnesses of the Holocaust of European Jews. The essay then analyses Western responses to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, pointing to unconditional military and diplomatic support for Israel’s actions, as well as silence in the face of increasingly evident examples of war crimes. The image of Western countries as actors enabling Israeli violence is contrasted with the initial strong empathy shown toward Ukraine following the Russian invasion, both at the political level and within civil society. In the subsequent part of the analysis, referring to the declining willingness to support Ukraine and the rise of anti-Ukrainian sentiments in Poland, the essay examines the mechanisms behind the erosion of solidarity with the victims of war. Drawing on Susan Sontag’s (1979) reflections on the desensitisa- tion produced by the consumption of images of suffering and Alenka Zupančič’s (2024) concept of “disavowal”, the analysis shows how observers suspend their response. In con- clusion, the essay argues that, amid the erosion of the post-war moral order, sociology should adopt an engaged stance, resisting claims to neutrality that risk becoming forms of consent to violence.

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