Regev says she will continue to plan Oct. 7 state memorial despite criticism

Transportation Minister Miri Regev asserts she will go ahead with planning a state memorial service on the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre despite a growing boycott among Gaza border communities and hostage families of the event.

Regev says in a statement she can take the criticism of her role in planning the event.

“We will unite just as we unite as a nation at Independence Day and Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies,” she says.

Several kibbutzim along the border have rallied around a boycott of the planned ceremony, griping that they had been overlooked by the government since the outbreak of war and that their confidence has not been restored after the government failed to prevent the massacre and abductions.

The southern cities of Ofakim and Sderot are said to be on board with the plans for a ceremony.