On the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre, Israel is experiencing a week of commemorations, events, protests and marches. The pedalless bicycle of Ariel Bibas, the red-haired child who became a symbol of that day of horror, will be at the exhibition ‘The Space Left Behind’, a collection of objects belonging to those who were killed, taken hostage, affected by the events.
Events were held at 400 locations, starting at 6.29am, the time the Hamas attack began, until the evening with a national ceremony in Tel Aviv. Most of the commemorative events and protest initiatives were organized by the October Council, protest groups and the Kumu movement. Events are also planned at the site of the Nova music festival, near Re’im, and at the intersection of the Sha’ar HaNegev arches, where the Israeli flag is flown at half-mast. October Council bereaved families attend memorial services dedicated to their loved ones across the country. Participating institutions include Soroka, Ichilov, Sheba, Rambam, Hadassah, Schneider, Wolfson and Hillel Yaffe hospitals, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Technion, Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University and Reichman University. At the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa, the ‘Space Left Behind’ exhibition will be open to the public, displaying personal objects belonging to dozens of people killed on 7 October. Protests will take place in various locations across Israel from the afternoon until the evening. The day will culminate at 9.15pm, when the national commemorative ceremony organized by the families of October 7 and hosted by former hostage Eli Sharabi and actress Shani Cohen will be held in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park.
Ariel was kidnapped by Jihad with his nine-month-old brother Kfir and mother Shiri. None of the three have returned from captivity in Gaza. If he had not been killed, he would have turned 7 on August 5th.
The failure of the security apparatus and the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu continues to torture Israelis. Voting will take place on October 27th. The feeling of mourning, frustration, the nostalgia of lost children and parents will play their part at the polls. The first elections in Israel after the Hamas massacre – and the subsequent military offensive that caused tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths in Gaza – carry with them the weight of the worst massacre of Jewish civilians since the Shoah and the political considerations that follow.
The responsibility for not having foreseen and interpreted the signals coming from the Strip weighs heavily on the candidacy of the current prime minister. Who came back, despite his age, cancer and 19 years of premiership, albeit with interruptions, which make him the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the country. He is the only one who has not admitted his responsibility for the massacre, unlike the former head of the IDF Herzi Halevi and the former director of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar.
At the center of the electoral campaign are regularly old and new accusations launched by the anti-Bibi Israeli media and international newspapers to accuse him of having been warned of the catastrophe that was about to hit Israel, but of not having paid attention to it. However, the hard core of the ‘bibists’, Netanyahu’s most tenacious supporters, does not seem to have any intention of backing down even in the face of the precipice, even of reputation, into which the nation has fallen with the war in Gaza.
After October 7, Israel is no longer the same as before. Among the effects of that day in which 1,200 civilians were killed and another 251 taken hostage, analysts point to a clear shift to the right. According to a survey by the Israel Defense and Security Forum, one of the most marked changes occurred on the question of the Palestinian state: if in September 2023 31% of those interviewed believed that it would be a disaster for Israel, today the percentage has risen to 52%. 52% thought it was necessary to reach an agreement ‘with a serious Palestinian leadership’, today the percentage has collapsed to 31%.
Different research by the Institute for National Security shows a strong skepticism in the perception of security, a topic considered existential. Israelis do not think that a victory has been achieved in Gaza: 59% today estimate that an event similar to October 7 could be repeated in the coming years on the border with the Strip. But it must be said that not everyone goes to the right. The electoral survey map reveals a small rebirth of the Israeli left: in the current Knesset, elected in 2022, it is represented by only 4 deputies, while Yair Golan’s Democratic party now has around 10 seats.
The numbers speak quite clearly, but people’s feelings are another world. And it appears suddenly, when you least expect it. It happens that you ask for a small coffee in a bar in Tel Aviv, the joke immediately comes about about Italians and the cup, then the chatter about taste, flavours. And so, incidentally, before leaving that gentleman with the premature wrinkles brings up a memory. The son also liked Italian coffee, he was killed by terrorists at the Nova festival, he had gone there to work as a waiter. He was 20 years old.
Today Israel woke up early. At 6.29 in the morning a minute of silence, the time the attack began. At 7 am the activists gathered in front of the houses of the ministers who were in office that day. The Council of 7 October spoke with one voice for all: ‘Three years on, this date must not become just another day on the calendar. Behind the numbers there are people, families, broken lives, and behind the tragedy there are still questions. The Israeli people deserve answers.’
Mattarella: “The attacks of October 7 are a warning against hatred. Intolerable devastation in Gaza”
“Today marks the tragic anniversary of the ignoble attack perpetrated by Hamas against numerous Israeli civilians. Many young people, including those of other nationalities, were cowardly attacked, taken hostage or deprived of their lives while they were gathered for a festive occasion. Others were brutally killed or kidnapped in their homes, without any mercy for children and the elderly. Acts of terrorism can never be justified or dismissed. They will remain, for all peoples, a painful warning to be forever condemned and firmly rejected, in the Middle East and throughout the world, the barbaric and uncivilized plagues of terrorism, anti-Semitism and every form of ethnic and religious hatred”. This was stated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
“The repugnant acts which, with extreme and inhuman cruelty, were committed on 7 October 2023 have reopened a dramatic phase of instability and violence in the region. Added to the atrocious suffering caused is that which, even more since then, weighs on multitudes of Palestinians. The military operations conducted by Israeli forces in Gaza have caused human and material devastation of intolerable severity. At the same time, the process of erosion of territories attributed to the National Authority is unacceptable Palestinian. The spiral of unprecedented violence must be stopped, instead recreating the conditions, now deeply compromised, of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians in the “Two Peoples, Two States” perspective, in order to be able to live peacefully, side by side”. This was stated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in a statement on the occasion of the anniversary on 7 October.
“On this occasion – he concludes – I wish to renew the closeness of the Italian Republic to the people of Israel, to the families of the victims and to those who still bear the wounds of that terrible day, hoping that the determination of the entire international community to build lasting conditions will be strengthened so that there is peace and security for those tormented lands and peoples”.