Several dozen former hostages or relatives of victims of the Hamas attack in Israel expressed their opposition on Wednesday to the organization by the authorities of a ceremony to commemorate the massacres of October 7.
In a letter sent to Minister Miri Regev, responsible for organizing the ceremony, they say they refuse “any use of photos of [leurs] relatives, dead or alive, of details concerning them or the mention of their names”.
The signatories, including around ten former hostages, are also demanding the cancellation of the ceremony, which local media estimate will cost more than a million euros.
They are pleading for the government to “bring back the hostages” before any other concerns.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Israeli reprisals in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized power in 2007, have left at least 40,534 dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry, and caused a humanitarian and health disaster in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Of the 251 people abducted on October 7, 103 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 declared dead by the army.
The location of the ceremony was also a subject of debate, with kibbutzim decimated by Hamas commandos refusing to host it.
Mme Regev had announced that she would choose the town of Ofaqim, whose mayor is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, and where more than 40 police officers, soldiers and civilians were killed on October 7.
The ceremony will be pre-recorded and without an audience, the organizers announced.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog had suggested that the presidency hold the ceremony “without political trappings,” a proposal that Regev rejected.
Asked by the press about these controversies, Mme Regev, the Minister of Transport and close to the Prime Minister, had responded that she was not “disturbed” by “background noise”, provoking a new outcry.
Several popular singers refused to sing on the occasion, including some who were classified as right-wing.
Families of the victims have announced that an alternative ceremony will be held in a Tel Aviv park.
Artists and personalities from all sides have confirmed their presence, including comedian and journalist Hanoch Daum, who called on Facebook on the organizers of the official ceremony not to hold it at the same time.
“Tens of thousands of people will be able to sit, remember and mourn together […] without politicians, to dialogue between Israelis, from the right and the left,” says Mr. Daum.