Culture minister says calling Oct. 7 a ‘massacre’ smacks of ‘victim mentality,’ drawing protest

Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar defends the government’s request to remove the word “massacre” from the title of a bill establishing a commemoration of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, saying that using the word reflects a “victim mentality.”

The decision to strike the word “massacre” from the name of the bill memorializing the worst attack in Israel’s history has drawn outcry from relatives of those murdered in the onslaught, who have accused the government of seeking to rewrite history.

Yesterday, a Knesset committee approved the request and advanced the bill, which now bears a title referring to the “events” of the day.

Zohar, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, defends the decision in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster.

“The State of Israel is a strong state,” he says. “The days when it was possible to massacre the State of Israel are no longer. One can kill in the State of Israel, unfortunately; one can hurt Israeli citizens, one can murder Israeli citizens, very unfortunately, and, God willing, we’ll do everything to prevent such things from happening. But it is no longer possible to massacre the nation of Israel.”

When the interviewer asks whether it might not be better to “see things as they are,” Zohar responds, “I’m not so into the victim mentality.”

Hila Abir, whose sister Lotan Abir was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival on October 7, and who spoke out against the change at the committee meeting yesterday, tells Channel 12 that Zohar’s words make him akin to a Holocaust denier.

“Nothing surprises me anymore, not even the words of Minister Zohar this morning,” she says. “What’s the difference between him and Holocaust deniers? There was a massacre. We can’t evade that.”