Following objections from bereaved families, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund has asked Israel Police and the Fire and Rescue Authority to prevent Simchat Torah celebrations from being held at the site of the Nova music festival massacre in Re’im Forest.
“Celebrating and holding festivities at a place where a massacre took place is disrespectful, both to the sanctity of the site and to Judaism,” KKL-JNF Chairman Eyal Ostrovsky told ynet.
Gallery
Second hakafot celebrations at the Nova site after Simchat Torah last year
(Photo: Herzl Yosef)
The memorial site for those murdered at the Nova festival has become a major destination for visitors, and for some bereaved families it has taken on a significance even greater than the cemetery. Last year, Simchat Torah celebrations were held there, with images of visitors dancing, setting up meals and camping at the site causing distress among relatives of those killed.
Dassi Aviad, whose son Aviad Halevi was murdered at Nova, said she wanted people to continue visiting the site for generations, but urged them to treat it with reverence.
“Every person who comes and stands in front of a photograph or a sign warms the heart. I hope this place will be full of visitors for generations,” she said. “But people need to understand that this ground is sacred, even if it has not been officially declared so, no less than a synagogue or other holy places.”
“People should walk here on tiptoe, thinking with every step about where they are walking and what may have happened right beneath their feet,” she added. “People can, should and must come on this day just as on any other, but they should walk around in respectful silence honoring those who were murdered with unimaginable cruelty, rather than turning the place into an overnight campsite with tents as though it were a campground on the Sea of Galilee.”
Omri Rahum, whose sister Nitzan Rahum was murdered at Nova while four months pregnant, said families were horrified by footage from last year’s holiday.
“We saw videos of people setting tables and holding meals. Seeing people dancing like that... so much filth was left behind that it had to be cleaned up afterward,” he said.
“Simchat Torah is the day our lives were turned upside down. Unfortunately, the police are hesitating and saying they have no solution. The bereaved families, as usual, are being abandoned. For us, this place is like a cemetery and Auschwitz.”
KKL-JNF Director General Ilan Shohat has asked Police Commissioner Dani Levy and Southern District Commander Haim Bublil to prevent organized gatherings and activities at the site.
“Any gathering at the site during this period could have exceptional public, safety and emotional consequences,” Shohat said.
(Photo: AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
He also asked police to help prevent overnight camping, the lighting of fires and barbecues, and to maintain public order.
Ostrovsky said the site’s importance lies in its national significance and that it should remain a place where Jews of every background can feel at home.
“Every Jew, secular or religious, should feel at home there,” he said. “Initiatives of this kind only damage the delicate fabric that this place represents in such an important way.”
“KKL-JNF will do everything in its power to prevent this, and I intend to speak with the heads of the security and rescue services so they can help us maintain public order and the sanctity of the site.”
Israel Police said it would operate during the holiday period “in cooperation and coordination with all relevant authorities, each according to its area of responsibility and based on the situational assessment, in order to maintain public safety, public order and the security of visitors.”
The Fire and Rescue Authority said that, aside from the annual Oct. 7 memorial ceremony, it had not received requests to approve any large-scale events at the Nova site in the near future.
Any requests that are submitted will be examined individually, the authority said, adding that patrols would be carried out in Re’im Forest and at the Nova site throughout the holiday.
The authority added that it “strongly opposes the holding of events without its approval and in violation of the law.”