‘Over my dead body’: PM’s office drops ‘massacre’ from Oct. 7 memorial bill, sparking outrage |
The word “massacre” was removed, at the request of the Prime Minister’s Office, from the title of a bill establishing an annual commemoration of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, outraging bereaved families who have accused the government of trying to “erase” history and evade accountability.
The stormy discussion was the latest argument in a long-running debate over how the attack will be investigated and remembered. Also on Wednesday, a Knesset committee discussed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial effort to create a politically appointed investigation of the October 7 attack, rather than setting up a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority.
Yoel Elbaz, a representative of Netanyahu’s office, made the request to change the bill’s name at a discussion of the legislation in the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee.
And a draft of the bill distributed to committee members and guests at the start of the session bore the title “Memory and Commemoration of the events of Simhat Torah,” with a previous title including the word “massacre” crossed out. (The attack occurred on the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah.)
The bill, which combines two pieces of legislation, is meant to be a consensus measure in the normally fractious Knesset. It is supported by more than 80 of the 120 MKs, and proposes that a national memorial day be held for the October 7 attack, the worst in Israel’s history, on the 24th of the Jewish month of Tishrei.
That Hebrew date was chosen in a March 2024 cabinet decision, which the bill would effectively enshrine. On that date, according to the bill, a state memorial ceremony would be held. The bill would also create a commemorative body in southern Israel, where the attack took place, including a memorial site, museum, and archive.
But Elbaz sparked controversy during the committee discussion when he said that in describing the Hamas onslaught in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped, the office preferred to use a Hebrew word that literally means “events,” but has also been used in the past to refer to riots. The reason, he said, is that October 7 “was not only a massacre — there was also heroism.”
He added, “I don’t know to what degree people will remember the name of the law — they will rather remember the activities carried out by the authorities, which will also preserve the memory of the massacre.”
Initially, the acting committee chair, Shas MK Yosef Taieb, appeared to reject the idea, saying that “there will be no whitewashing of the issue.”
“We all know today that there was a massacre. My concern is........