Two ceremonies show Israel's conflicting narratives over Oct. 7
Bereaved families organise their own memorial on Monday
Families' event will highlight heroism and state failures
Anger at Netanyahu for security and intelligence weaknesses
TV will show live family event, then pre-recorded govt piece
By Rami Amichay and Ari Rabinovitch
TEL AVIV, Oct 6 (Reuters) -One commemoration of the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel will be a live, public ceremony to be held at a large venue in Tel Aviv. The other on Monday, will be a pre-recorded televised tribute that leaves little to chance.
The first is organized by bereaved families who lost loved ones. It plans to dive deep into the failures as well as the heroism on display that day.
The other is set up by the government, which says its recorded ceremony will touch on remembrance, bravery and hope.
The distinction in tone is at the heart of a public discourse over how to remember the darkest day in the country's 76-year history.
"You can say it's a war on the narrative," said Jonathan Shimriz, one of the organizers of the public ceremony.
"This memorial will tell the story of what we've been through on the seventh. That there was no army, but there were soldiers. There was no state, but there were citizens. And I think the government memorial will not mention the mistakes that happened."
Shimriz is from kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was hit hard during Hamas' attack. His brother was taken hostage into Gaza and was later killed by erroneous Israeli fire as he tried to escape.
"The tape of the government, the other memorial, it does not quite reflect how we want to remember what happened on the seventh," he said.
A government that has not taken responsibility for its failures, he said, is disconnected from the people.
In charge of the state ceremony is cabinet minister Miri Regev, a close supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, who has been in power for most of the past 15 years, has faced heavy criticism for not taking responsibility for the intelligence and military failures that led to the Oct. 7 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies, and that sparked the devastating war in Gaza.
He says that everything will be investigated after the war ends. Opinion polls in the meantime show his popularity, which plummeted after Oct. 7, is slowly recovering.
Regev announced her plans a month ago, saying "I'm aware of the ongoing discourse among different parts of the public."
The state ceremony will be broadcast after the grassroots ceremony in order to avoid conflict, she said. It was filmed in the small city of Ofakim near the Gaza border, which lost more than 40 of its residents in the Hamas assault.
"There is not a house in Israel that will not be touched by the ceremony," Regev said.
Ofakim was also a stronghold in the last elections for Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and his conservative allies, as opposed to the smaller communities in the area that usually vote more liberal.
This raised questions for many in Israel, who saw it as an attempt to manage the narrative.
On hearing of the Ofakim ceremony, some of the bereaved families crowd-funded a competing ceremony in Tel Aviv's central park. Within hours of going public over 40,000 tickets were reserved.
The crowd, however, will likely be limited to 1,000 people as the military, wary of missile fire from an escalating conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, is still restricting the size of public gatherings in much of the country.
Shirel Hogeg is from Ofakim and is highly suspicious about the government's decision to have filmed its tribute there. His sister is from a nearby kibbutz and she was badly injured when her house was set on fire by the Hamas attackers.
He is helping to arrange the live ceremony in Tel Aviv.
"As you know, the politicians will try to do everything so the narrative will be fixed for them," Hogeg said. "We don't need a synthetic, TikTok movie."
Editing by Alexandra Hudson
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
