Regev dismisses families’ objections as ‘noise’ as she pushes ahead with Oct. 7 ceremony
She likens communities’ planned events to ‘alternative ceremonies, such as Israeli-Palestinian ceremony on Memorial Day’; is accused of ignoring pain of bereaved, hostages’ families
Transportation Minister Miri Regev asserted on Thursday that she would go ahead with planning a state memorial service on the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, dismissing a growing boycott and objections among Gaza border communities and hostage families of the event as “noise.”
She also said that others were welcome to hold tribute ceremonies of their own, as many communities and families are planning to do, but compared these to contentious annual joint Israeli-Palestinian events held on Memorial Day.
“Of course,” Regev said at a press conference, “there is also an option for others to hold alternative ceremonies, like some do with the Israeli-Palestinian ceremony on Memorial Day.”
According to the Ynet news site, Regev denied making the comparison a short while later and refused to apologize.
Regev’s remarks drew an immediate backlash from the communities affected and families of the victims, who accused her of further insensitivity to their pain and their wishes.
At her press conference, she said she believed the government was right in deciding to hold a state ceremony and that she could take the criticism she has been facing since being tapped as the person leading the ceremony.
“The ceremony is all of our ceremony, as a society and a nation. It’s meant for everyone regardless of our disagreements, anger, and deep pain,” she said.
“I understand those who are angry with us, the country, the government, the army, and the security forces. Yes, there was a massive failure, and I also have difficult questions but there will be time for that,” she added, saying that she would be “the first to call for an investigative committee” as soon as the war in Gaza ends.
All the same, she said, it was unfathomable for the state not to hold a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack.
“Just as we’re fighting Hamas and Hezbollah, fighting to get the hostages back, and fighting to help the evacuees, the government has also decided to maintain and honor the victims’ dignity and that of the families from this terrible massacre,” she said.
Regev, who has been responsible for state ceremonies in the years that she has been in government for the last decade, said that to her, the ceremony was sacred.
“I’m used to being criticized by some people. They are not many, but unfortunately, they are never happy,” she said, adding that despite the criticism, the ceremony would be “deeply emotional for most of the public that needs these moments to unite.”
“Just as we unite around the ceremonies for Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Holocaust Remembrance Day, we should also unite around October 7,” she said.
Regev said she did not make the decision to lead the ceremony lightly and that she saw it as a public service.
“I’m willing to take criticism, and I am being criticized from all directions by people who don’t know the full facts, and still, I continue. I’m ignoring the noise, and I will continue to lead this ceremony sensitively and wisely just as I have done with previous ceremonies,” she said.
Turning to her plans for the ceremony, Regev said it would focus on three core values – remembrance, heroism, and hope.
Since she had received offers from local authorities to host the ceremony, Regev said she had made it clear to them that it would be held in the South because that is where the massacre took place. It will also be held without an audience so as to avoid offending anyone who should have been there and wasn’t invited considering it would be impossible to seat all the victims, their families, and the people who fought or performed heroics on October 7.
The ceremony will not be live-streamed, but rather filmed and televised later or available on demand so as not to clash with smaller local memorial events that may be held on October 7.
Following her statement, Regev faced intense criticism from the families of the victims and the hostages, and also from members of the opposition, who accused her of dismissing their concerns as “noise” and ignoring their pain.
The October 7 Families group, which is also arranging memorial events for the anniversary of the attack, also criticized Regev’s words.
“The ‘background noise’ that Minister Regev spoke about is us. Bereaved families, residents of the South and the North, the reserves soldiers who paid and are paying a heavy price for October 7. In her speech, Regev exhibited the complete disconnect in the government’s decision to produce a disconnected and engineered ceremony that is pre-recorded and edited at the cost of millions of shekels,” the group said in a statement.
“The government must announce that the budget allocated for the state event will be fully transferred to the people’s ceremony – a national memorial ceremony arranged by bereaved families and representatives of the communities that were neglected on October 7.”
The Kibbutz Movement added that “if anyone needs proof why Regev is not suitable” to lead the ceremony, “she supplied us with 10 reasons today.”
The Hostages Families Forum accused Regev of holding the ceremony without an audience out of fear of looking at those affected by October 7 in the eye.
“The Forum is also ignoring the noise and continuing to work to save the hostages. No ceremony will save lives – only a deal will. There will be no going back to normal and to Regev’s productions as long as there are hostages in Gaza,” the Forum added.
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.
During Hamas’s October 7 attack, thousands of terrorists rampaged through communities in Israel’s South, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
