Heritage minister said mulling classifying damaged homes in Be’eri as national heritage sites

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu is reportedly weighing designating multiple homes damaged in Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border on October 7 as national heritage sites despite a recent decision by residents to demolish all but one of them.

According to Channel 12, Eliyahu is considering the use of a clause in the Antiquities Law allowing him to designate a structure of more modern construction for preservation if it is of historic significance.

The community of Be’eri announced on Monday that its residents had voted to demolish all the homes damaged in the two neighborhoods worst-hit on October 7, save for a single house that will remain as a memorial to the destruction and bloodshed.

The house will initially remain standing for five years. The kibbutz did not specify which home would be preserved.

Ofer Gitai, Be’eri’s community director, said the move would help “preserve the memory of the October events, in a way that respects the narrative that the community chooses for itself, and will leave it in full control of the story.”

Asked for comment, Eliyahu’s office releases a statement asserting that any consideration of designating houses as heritages sites was only being conducted at the behest of victims’ families and would only be implemented if no other solution was available.

“In response to the many requests received by the heritage minister’s office from families of those murdered in the towns and kibbutzim to invoke the clause in the law that would designate specific homes as national heritage sites, Minister Eliyahu replied that this is a last resort, and that the Heritage Ministry has been working tirelessly for over two years to reach broad agreements with each community and kibbutz according to its unique character and needs,” Eliyahu’s office says.