Several former hostages and families of hostages demanded that Transport Minister Miri Regev not mention their names during the state memorial ceremony on October 7.
About 100 people who returned from captivity in the Gaza Strip, as well as the families of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, presented their request in a letter to Regev on Wednesday.
They called on them to refrain from using any information or images of them or their family members still in captivity during the state ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas massacre.
The letter came amid a public dispute between Regev and numerous hostage families over the upcoming one-year commemoration of the massacre. Regev, who was nominated by the government to lead the commemoration events, announced that a ceremony would be held in Ofakim without a live audience and using pre-recorded video segments.
The families accused Regev of deliberately foregoing a live audience to avoid criticism. Instead, the families are planning an alternative ceremony with a live audience in Tel Aviv.
“It cannot be that at this time when the state’s resources should be invested in the return of the (remaining) hostages, as well as in the protection of the border communities in the Gaza Strip and in the north, in the care of the many evacuees and all affected citizens, resources are invested in a ceremony conducted by those whose negligence led to the unfortunate situation in which we find ourselves,” the letter said. “The returned hostages, the relatives of the hostages and the murdered hostages will not help the cynical use of the names of the hostages whom the country has abandoned for almost a year, or the names of their relatives who were murdered in the October 7 massacre,” their message continued.
The letter also asked that the names of the released hostages, those still in captivity and their relatives not be mentioned at the ceremony.
Focus on the release of the hostages
The signatories also called on the government to reconsider holding the ceremony altogether and instead focus on releasing the hostages.
At the same time, on Wednesday, a list of more than 100 families of people killed on October 7 or in fighting thereafter, as well as of those kidnapped – some of whom have since been released, others – expressed their support for the alternative ceremony in Tel Aviv.
One of the alternative organizers of the ceremony is Jonathan Shimriz, the brother of Alon Shimriz, who was kidnapped and accidentally shot by soldiers after escaping his captors. Shimriz invited all the bereaved and families of the hostages to attend the ceremony.
Comedian and journalist Hanoch Daum, the host of the alternative ceremony, called on the organizers of the state ceremony to air the October 7 ceremony at a different time so that people do not have to choose between the two events. Daum’s proposal received support from a number of politicians from all camps, including MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionist Party) and Naama Lazimi (Democrats).
