Kibbutz Be’eri says it will hold private memorial on Oct. 7, denounces planned state-run ceremony

Kibbutz Be’eri announces its opposition to the government’s plans to hold a state memorial ceremony to mark one year since the October 7 Hamas terror assault, in which 101 residents of the kibbutz were slaughtered.

In a statement, the kibbutz says it would prefer for the government to instead “invest all its energy in promoting a deal to return the hostages and end their abandonment.”

Instead of a ceremony, the government should establish a state commission of inquiry “that will provide us with answers and draw conclusions with which it will be possible to start to heal,” the kibbutz says, adding that it would prefer the government to “deal with the lives that can still be saved.”

Kibbutz Be’eri will hold a private memorial ceremony on October 7 for the members it lost, it says.

Earlier this week, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said he would boycott the state-run memorial, which is expected to be overseen by Transportation Minister Miri Regev, in favor of spending the day with the families of those murdered “from Be’eri and Sderot and Nir Oz.”

A number of other communities hit hard by the October 7 attack have also said they will not be taking part in the ceremony spearheaded by the often controversial Regev, a Netanyahu loyalist, and many families of those being held hostage have indicated they will hold their own separate event.