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Bereaved families will hold event as alternative to ‘disconnected’ government memorial
Families of victims of the Oct 7 Hamas massacre in Israel are planning to hold an alternative memorial on the first anniversary as they refuse to take part in the official event hosted by the government.
The controversy surrounding the memorial comes after months of fury against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s handling of the war in Gaza, with mass protests taking place every week across Israel.
The Telegraph understands that the state memorial will take place in the city of Ofakim in southern Israel. It will be pre-recorded and without an audience.
The public feud between the bereaved families and the government over the memorial began about a month ago when it was announced that Miri Regev, the transportation minister, would be in charge of the official event.
Mrs Regev, who is seen as one of Mr Netanyahu’s closest allies, dismissed the bereaved families’ criticism of the state memorial, calling it “noise”.
Yonatan Shamriz, the brother of Alon Shamriz, who was kidnapped on Oct 7 and accidentally killed by IDF fire in Gaza in December, told The Telegraph that the government has failed to take responsibility for the tragedy and that many of the ministers are yet to visit the victims of the massacre in the border communities.
Israel’s “central national commemoration event”, as Mr Shamriz calls it, will be held in Tel Aviv’s HaYarkon park and is expected to attract some 50,000 people. The memorial will be “non-political, and big but intimate”.
He said: “The event planned by the government is not the way we want to remember the victims. No audience, no soul and disconnected from the public.”
Many opposition lawmakers are expected to partake in the event in Tel Aviv, including Ram Ben-Barak, lawmaker from Yesh Atid and former Deputy Chief of Mossad.
“It’s a shame that we have reached a situation where even a memorial day for the most tragic incident since the establishment of the state is now a subject to controversy,” Mr Ben-Barak told The Telegraph.
Family members of victims will speak at the event, where pictures and videos will be shown of those killed on Oct7 and during the war.
In Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border, where over 100 people were massacred by terrorists on Oct 7, a private memorial will take place for the bereaved families.
Nili Bar Sinai, 73, is one of those Kibbutz members who will join the private memorial, commemorating her husband, Yoram, who was killed on Oct 7.
Mrs Sinai believes that the government’s memorial event will be without an audience because they want to “control the narrative” and to avoid any “disturbances” by the people who paid the price for Mr Netanyhau’s “insatiable power greed”.
Bereaved families, survivors and internally displaced Israelis have raged against the government for months, claiming they’ve been abandoned by the state both before and after the attack.
Many are still living in hotels, unable to return to their homes near the Gaza and Lebanon border, due to the ongoing attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Telegraph tried to contact several government ministers, including Mr Regev, about the memorial row but received no response.