Hostage families, Gaza border towns join growing boycott of Oct. 7 state memorial
Residents of kibbutzim targeted by Hamas, Hostages and Missing Families Forum all blast event as politicized; Gantz tells Netanyahu that ceremony is ‘not yours, it’s theirs’
More Gaza border communities on Wednesday announced they would boycott the official state ceremony to mark one year since Hamas’s October 7 attack, denouncing the event as politicized and accusing the government of using the official ceremony to avoid responsibility for the disaster and its continuing aftermath.
The Nir Oz and Yad Mordechai kibbutzim said Wednesday they would refuse to participate in the event, following a similarly strong statement from Kibbutz Nirim a day earlier, and amid announcements by Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Kfar Aza that they would mark the day with private ceremonies.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum also announced it would not participate in the state event, citing the government’s “resounding failure” to return the 105 people still held captive in the Gaza Strip, some ten months after the attack in which thousands of terrorists burst into Israel from the enclave, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The announcement by the Forum came days after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages taken captive on October 7 who were killed in captivity, four of them from Nir Oz and two from Nirim. The six are believed to have been killed sometime in early 2024, though the causes of death are not known.
The official state ceremony memorializing the attack, reportedly planned as a TV special with pre-recorded speeches and segments, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has a NIS 6 million ($1.6 million) budget and is currently planned with an audience of some 3,000 people, Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.
The government on Sunday tapped Transportation Minister Miri Regev of the ruling Likud party to manage the commemoration, drawing immediate backlash in light of her stewardship of state Independence Day ceremonies, which she has been accused of using to put Netanyahu on a pedestal. This year, hostages’ families held their own Independence Day ceremony.
In a statement on Wednesday, Nir Oz said the government had not reached out to the community about the October 7 memorial event.
“At a time when we are burying our dead who were murdered in Hamas captivity, it isn’t surprising that the Israeli government [has] not invited the members and residents of the kibbutz to take part in the ceremony,” it said, noting that Netanyahu still has not visited since the attack.
“Let us make it clear that even if we are invited, we refuse to work together on a political ceremony conducted by the government. He who completely broke our trust can’t obscure that through ceremonies, using us as extras,” the statement continued.
“We propose that the government of Israel transfer its budget [for the ceremony] to a civilian body, with representatives from all parts of Israeli society, that will be fully responsible for the events of the day, without any politics,” it said.
Kibbutz Yad Mordechai also announced later in the day that its residents will skip the ceremony. “We have no intention to take part in this political production. The kibbutz will examine each invitation if and when it arrives, but it does not intend to hold ceremonies of a political nature,” it said in a statement.
Kibbutz Kfar Aza also said Wednesday that it was “disappointed by the Israeli government’s preoccupation” with the event “at a time when 109 hostages, including five members of the Kfar Aza community, are still languishing in Hamas captivity, our soldiers are fighting on the front, and the residents of the north and the Gaza border are evacuated from their homes.”
The government should instead “focus all its efforts on saving the hostages and content itself with lowering the flag to half-staff [and] standing at attention for the siren, not putting on grandiose events.” Air raid sirens are traditionally sounded on Israel’s memorial days, once on Holocaust Remembrance Day and twice on Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism.
On Monday, Kibbutz Nirim told the government it would not participate in the state ceremony, saying in a letter, “Instead of a state memorial service, we call for a state commission of inquiry.” Netanyahu’s government has refused to commit to opening a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7 despite widespread calls to do so, insisting that any investigation should begin only when the war is over.
“For an entire year, not a single government official has come to Nirim to take responsibility, admit failure and ask what is needed,” the kibbutz wrote in its letter, which came a day after workers from a production company arrived at Nirim to scout for the ceremony, and were asked by residents to leave.
“The lives of kibbutz members and all residents of the western Negev are not a movie, and the government of Israel is not a production company,” the letter read.
Kibbutz Be’eri also said earlier this week that it would be marking the anniversary with a private ceremony, though it clarified that the event was planned before the state commemoration was announced, adding, “This is not an alternative memorial ceremony, it is the community’s ceremony.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Monday said that he, too, would eschew the state memorial in favor of spending time with families of victims from Sderot, Kibbutz Be’eri and Nir Oz.
“The only ceremony that Netanyahu’s government and its extremists can and should hold is a resignation ceremony and the announcement of a state commission of inquiry,” he added.
In addition, at least two families of hostages refused to let their loved ones’ names be used in the ceremony, while a letter asking Netanyahu to cancel the ceremony was signed by dozens of families of victims, who called it “a propaganda event.”
As the backlash against the state ceremony mounted on Wednesday, National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz wrote a post on X addressed to Netanyahu.
“The way to mark the anniversary of the October 7 massacre can’t be determined by me, nor by you, nor by Minister Regev,” wrote Gantz, who joined the government after the Hamas massacres but quit in June to protest Netanyahu’s handling of the war.
“The nature of this day should be determined by those who experienced the inferno: the residents of towns in the Western Negev, the hostages and their families, the families of fallen soldiers, and the wounded,” the post continued.
“It’s still not too late to wake up and do the right thing — transfer the management of the ceremony to the culture minister, set up a joint steering committee with the heads of the western Negev communities and the bereaved families, and listen to them. Just listen before making decisions,” Gantz added, before concluding: “It’s not yours, it is first and foremost theirs.”
Speaking to the Ynet news site on Wednesday, MK Moshe Saada of Netanyahu’s Likud party said it was important to listen to the criticism.
“We must listen to their voice and their position. Just as we are together in the tank, in the trauma, so too we are together in the ceremony to commemorate this difficult event,” he said.
The authority for state events, under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office, said in a statement Wednesday, “The ceremony is still in its formative stages, and at this point we have not reached out to any local community on the subject.”
