‘Dancing within the fracture’: Institutional abandonment and post-traumatic growth among ‘Nova’ survivors in the swords of iron war

The massacre at the ‘Nova’ music festival, which occurred on 7 October 2023, at the Re’im parking area in southern Israel, was experienced by survivors as a ‘Seismic Event’ that undermined the foundations of their identity and existential security. Against the backdrop of a prolonged absence of a security response, participants experienced extreme institutional abandonment, which led to a profound sense of ‘Moral Injury.’ This qualitative study examined the experiences of 20 survivors of the festival (N = 20), focusing on meaning-making processes and post-traumatic growth in the shadow of the fracture. A thematic analysis of the participants’ narratives indicates a dialectical journey, reflecting a complex reality of coexistence between pain and growth. Three main themes were extracted from the data, conceptualized as follows: (1) ‘The Survivor’s Mission,’ characterized by active agency and altruism; (2) ‘Self-Transcendence,’ in which dance is perceived as an act of resistance and there is a clear reliance on ‘horizontal’ community trust; and (3) ‘Integration of the Fracture,’ reflecting the formation of a ‘Fragile-Resilience.’ The findings suggest that for these participants, growth may be intertwined with what was conceptualized in the study as the ‘Moral Gate’—an active coping with the experience of institutional betrayal as part of the establishment of an autonomous identity. In doing so, the research corresponds with the conceptual framework of positive victimology, illuminating how survivors may act as active agents seeking to construct meaning out of the institutional vacuum.