Minister may preserve Be’eri homes gutted on Oct. 7 despite kibbutz vote for demolition

Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu is weighing designating some homes in Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border that were ruined on October 7, 2023, as national heritage sites, his office has indicated, days after residents voted to demolish all but one of them.

Kibbutz members held the vote this week, over two years after the attacks that caused severe damage to the kibbutz. The decision to demolish the homes passed 196 to 146.

Be’eri was the hardest-hit community in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. In all, 101 civilians and 31 security personnel were killed in Be’eri — a community of around 1,000 residents — and a further 30 residents and two additional civilians were taken hostage from there by the Hamas terrorists. Many dozens of homes in the community were damaged and destroyed amid the fighting.

Channel 12 reported Wednesday that Eliyahu was 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.

Eliyahu, in his capacity as heritage minister, has the authority to grant a building built after 1700 as a heritage site if it has clear historical significance.

Asked for comment, Eliyahu’s office released a statement Thursday that tacitly confirmed the move was being considered, saying it would be “a last resort.”

The office said it had received “many requests… 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.” It added 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.”

Be’eri announced on Monday that its residents had voted to demolish all the homes damaged in the two neighborhoods that were 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.”

Arguing in favor of demolition, one resident said during the vote that they “don’t want to go back to living in Yad Vashem,” drawing a comparison to the renowned Jerusalem Holocaust museum.

“We don’t want to live in Auschwitz,” another resident told Ynet. “We need to recover and move on.”

The decision was not without opposition, though, as many in the community said they felt that demolishing the homes would be erasing part of the kibbutz’s history.

A kibbutz spokeswoman told The Times of Israel after Monday’s vote that most of the 62 homes in the two neighborhoods slated for demolition were burned or damaged and that all would be pulled down, except the single one to be left for testimony. There were no plans to rebuild on the site.

New construction is underway on the other, eastern side of the community, where 80 houses are being built with funding from the Tekuma Directorate, the state agency tasked with rehabilitating the Gaza border area.

Around 80 Be’eri residents have returned to the kibbutz, while most are in temporary accommodation at Kibbutz Hatzerim, also in the Negev region of southern Israel. They expect to return home next summer.

Sue Surkes contributed to this report.