‘We won’t let them forget’: Tel Aviv protesters slam state failures and forever wars ahead of Memorial Day

Speakers at the “Forgetting Day” protest memorial ceremony at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square rail against the government’s failure to hold itself accountable for the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading a directionless forever war at the expense of their slain loved ones so he can remain in power.

The speakers, who all end their speeches with the words “we won’t let you forget,” represent six groups that they accuse the government of abandoning: Members of the armed forces killed defending southern Israel during the October 7 attack; civilians killed by Hezbollah rockets in northern Israel; hostages killed in captivity in Gaza; civilians killed in the Gaza border communities during the October 7 attack; civilians killed in the massacre that day at the Re’im-area rave; and reservists killed in combat.

Each group of representatives lays a laurel on the stage, with a seventh laurel laid for everyone killed in the nearly 1,000 days of conflict since the Hamas onslaught, including reservists who died by suicide.

Laying a laurel for the slain hostages, Ofri Bibas, whose sister-in-law Shiri and young nephews Ariel and Kfir were killed in captivity, addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying: “Prime Minister, a second Holocaust happened to my family. It happened to us.”

“After two-and-a-half years of war, the country is not grand,” she tells the roughly 1,000 people in attendance. “It’s crumbling, and that’s on you.”

“You won’t evade accountability,” she says. “I won’t forget all those responsible for the massacre and the myriad failures — they’ll be held.to account.”

“Shiri, Ariel and Kfir — We won’t forgive and won’t forget,” says Bibas.

Shai Fisher, whose grandmother and uncle were killed in a 2024 Hezbollah rocket strike on their home in northern Israel, says she is speaking “for an entire region” as she assails the ceasefire that US President Donald Trump announced this week in Lebanon.

“We, the people of the north, are strong, faithful and self-sacrificing, but are also abandoned far too often,” she says. “The country that promised us sovereignty and security can’t let its citizens submit to the whims of others and of governments across the border.”

The ceremony ends with “Hatikva,” the national anthem. A few dozen members of the crowd then converge on the square’s southern edge to demand that authorities do more to find Haymanut Kasau, a girl from an immigrant Ethiopian Jewish family who went missing from an absorption center in Safed two years ago.

The rally is being held today to mark the girl’s 11th birthday. Attendees hoist her picture and signs asking top law enforcement officials “Where is Haymanut,” along with yellow balloons emblazoned with smiles.