Marking One Month to Hamas Attack, Families Speak of Pain, Loss and Anger at Government
By: Allison Kaplan Sommer (Haaretz. com)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As Israel observed a day of mourning for the victims of October 7, bereaved families gathered in Tel Aviv to eulogize their loved ones. One promised: Those responsible for the debacle “will go home, go to jail or go to hell”
A month after the murderous Hamas attack on southern Israel, a somber audience comprised largely of the families of 1,400 dead civilians and soldiers, gathered in Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium to commemorate and mourn their loved ones.
The ceremony was one of the centerpieces of a day of mourning marking a month to the events of October 7 . Flags were flown at half-mast as commemorations began with a national moment of silence at 11 AM, with memorial services held in cities and towns, government offices and universities around the country.
The ceremony wasn’t held in the large grand above-ground auditorium that serves as the city’s central performance space, but in the smaller hall two floors underground used for more modest performances, in order to keep the audience protected from rocket attacks.
Outside the theater in the square, crowds watched the ceremony projected on the side of the Habima theater, which included performances by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a number of guest artists. The crowd stood amid the “Empty Beds” installation in Habima Square, a display of 240 beds representing the 240 Israelis abducted and held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
Around the beds and along the edge of a reflecting pool, memorial candles glittered. A candle-lit display of the names of those murdered and held hostage also lined the entrance to the performance hall.
Inside, the families wore black T-shirts, reading “Seventh of October” in white letters; on the backs, the shirts read, “I am a mourning family” and “we will not forget.”
The eulogies by several of the family members who took to the stage mingled personal remembrances with strong messages for the country’s leaders.
Maayan Adam, a television anchor whose sister Mapal Adam died in her boyfriend’s arms at the Nova Music Festival in Kibbutz Re’im , said tearfully she will “never forgive” the government for the hours her sister spent waiting in vain to be rescued. Once the war is over, she vowed, “We will open a new page in Israeli history” in which all of those responsible for the failures that led to the death of her sister and other victims “will go home, go to jail or go to hell.”
Once that happens, she promised her lost sister, “We will return to Rei’m, we will return to Nova, we will turn up the music and dance so powerfully the ground will shake.”
Even after a month, she confessed, “I refuse to believe that this is final, that you won’t return, it’s just too cruel. I die a little every time I eulogize you.”
Eran Litman, the father of Uria Litman, another young woman killed at Nova, recalled learning how her body was found under a tree, next to the car in which she had tried to escape.
His 26-year-old daughter, he said “gave everyone the feeling they were the most loved person in the world. She knew how to enjoy life. It was her third party that week. One too many.”
He promised her that he would “hold on to life and to remember forever. Every human being is a world unto themselves. We are here to remember her and every single one of the 1,400, soldiers, kibbutz residents, foreign workers, making no distinctions between them."
Litman also issued a cry to “save the country from itself,” condemning what he said was a government that “failed to protect its citizens,” that “lacks knowledge and experience” and “doesn’t even know how to properly mourn its people."
He called on leaders, among them President Isaac Herzog, to “replace this government with a moral and professional government that will rehabilitate and resurrect this country.”
Only such a government would “end this accursed war” which he said was one that was a “justified battle, whose goal is to guarantee quiet and convince our neighbors that it is better to live with us in peace than to face the fire of the IDF.” He called on the Israeli military to “spare the lives of innocents as much as it possibly can."
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We hear very little about the hostages any more.
In the coming weeks the media will move on to another topic, just like they did with Ukraine.
And we're hearing far fewer stories about how awful it is for the Palestinians.