No representative of Oct. 7 bereaved families asked to speak at 2nd government ceremony
Victims of Hostilities Organization chair says he was asked to give speech as ‘they didn’t want screaming’ or protests at event where PM, Herzog will speak too
A state ceremony planned for the second national day of mourning for October 7 — less than two weeks after the initial ceremonies marking the massacre — will not include any speaker from a family bereaved on that day or in the subsequent war, Channel 12 news reported Sunday.
The second national day of mourning, in accordance with the Hebrew calendar, was approved by the government on Sunday and will be marked by two state ceremonies — one for fallen soldiers and one for civilians — both of which are being organized by Transportation Minister Miri Regev.
The speakers at the ceremony honoring civilians killed will include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.
However, instead of a representative of the bereaved families, Abie Moses — the chairman of the Victims of Hostilities Organization — will speak. Moses’s pregnant wife and 5-year-old son were killed in a terror attack in 1987. He did not suffer a personal loss on October 7.
Officials reportedly told Moses they wanted him to speak and preferred not to have a representative of the bereaved families speak at the event due to fear that they would express criticism of the government and the prime minister, he told Channel 12.
The Public Diplomacy Directorate claimed in a response to Channel 12 that nobody specifically approached Moses to speak at the ceremony, but that as the chairman of the Victims of Hostilities Organization he has always spoken on behalf of bereaved families at state ceremonies.
The ceremonies on the second day of national mourning will be held on Mount Herzl on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei (October 26-27), three days after the annual Simhat Torah holiday, which is when the Hamas attack took place last year.
The additional official day of mourning will also be marked by special programs at schools and in the military, the lowering of flags to half-staff and the closure of entertainment venues.
The government decision to hold an additional national day of mourning faced backlash from some families of those held hostage in Gaza.
“All the ceremonies and days of mourning are completely unnecessary. These are distractions,” Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod Cohen was taken hostage on October 7, told the Ynet news site.
Yifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer Calderon is being held in Gaza, told the news site that as long as the war is ongoing and the hostages remain in captivity, no ceremonies or memorial days should be established.
“Enough of this nonsense,” Calderon said.
Kibbutz Be’eri said in a statement to Ynet that its members would not be marking the second national day of mourning as they are “still moving their dead to be buried in Be’eri, and working tirelessly to bring back our hostages. We see no reason to mark this terrible day again.”
Regev also faced backlash within the government for the decision to hold a second ceremony.
At a cabinet meeting last week, Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa’ar pointed out that two ceremonies had already been held — a reference to an alternative memorial event organized in Tel Aviv by the families of those killed and kidnapped on October 7.
“There were not two ceremonies,” Regev shot back.
The families of hostages and other October 7 victims had already strongly objected to Regev being chosen to oversee last week’s official state ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas-led onslaught, with several Gaza border communities accusing the government of using the official event as a fig leaf to avoid responsibility for its role in failing to prevent the terror massacre, and for not doing enough for the communities in its aftermath.