PM’s office says text of Oct. 7 commemoration bill uses word ‘massacre,’ though term deleted from title

Following widespread outrage over the Prime Minister’s Office request to remove the word “massacre” from the title of a bill to commemorate the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, the PMO stresses that the term “massacre” appears in the bill’s body, while acknowledging that it opposed including the word in the title of the proposed legislation.

“Contrary to reports that have circulated, the proposed legislation explicitly includes the word ‘massacre,'” the PMO says in a statement, “as agreed in discussions between the Knesset and the government three weeks ago.” It attaches an image of the draft bill showing that the word appears in the body of the text.

The statement does not address the public backlash over the PMO’s request to change the bill’s title.

Asked for clarification, a PMO spokesperson tells The Times of Israel that the request to change the title came not as an attempt to exclude the word, but rather to maintain the original name of the government’s proposal, which never included the term.

The Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee today approved merging two bills commemorating the October 7 Hamas attack. The first, a private bill sponsored by 80 MKs titled “Bill to Commemorate the Massacre and Heroism on the 22nd of Tishrei,” passed its first reading last month and has been under discussion in the committee since. The second, a government bill titled “Memory and Commemoration of the Events of Simchat Torah,” was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation several weeks ago, the Knesset Spokesperson’s Office said.

During the discussion today, a representative of the PMO requested the removal of the word “massacre” from the title of the newly merged bill. The Knesset committee approved the name change, though the matter isn’t final.

“The bill is intended to commemorate the events of October 7 in their full severity and scope… This is a broad, state-level initiative to establish a national memorial authority for the events of October 7, which will anchor the memory of those events within a regulated, responsible and respectful national framework, and ensure proper and comprehensive commemoration for generations to come,” the PMO statement continues, asserting that it “is committed to a full and truthful commemoration of all components of the events, without blurring or omission.”