Eyal Eshel, father of surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, who was killed on the day of the massacre at the Nahal Oz base, said: “This installation is not a symbol, it is a cry: You cannot bury the truth in the sand.”
Oct. 7 Massacre Exhibit in Tel Aviv
The October Council is campaigning for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the circumstances of the massacre. Its members have protested a move led by the Prime Minister’s Office to remove the word “massacre” from legislation commemorating the deadly terror attack.
During a recent discussion in the Knesset’s Education, Culture and Sports Committee, Yoel Elbaz, a representative of the Prime Minister’s Office, said that instead of the word “massacre,” the law should use the term “events,” similar to how the 1929 riots are referred to in Hebrew, “because memory builds resilience.”
“We don’t need to be reminded — we live October 7 every minute,” Eshel said. “But a state that tries to move on without investigating, without taking responsibility and without providing answers betrays its citizens once again. Only a state commission of inquiry will say who failed, who concealed and who allowed this to happen.”
Menashe Mantzuri, father of Norel and Roya, who were killed at the Nova music festival, said: “There are those who are trying to turn October 7 into just another chapter to move on from — without stopping, without asking, without investigating. But we will not let that happen. You don’t sweep a massacre under the rug, you don’t cover up a failure and you don’t silence the truth. A state commission of inquiry is not revenge and not politics. It is the minimum a state owes its families, the captives and the survivors, and every citizen who wants to know that tomorrow this will not happen again.”
Reut Recht Adari, mother of Ido, who was also killed at the Nova festival, said: “My Ido was not murdered only by terrorists. He was also killed by a system that collapsed and by leadership that to this day refuses to look us in the eye. When they try to make people forget the massacre, they are trying to make people forget us, our pain and their duty. We are here to say clearly: There will be no forgiveness without truth. There will be no renewal without a state commission of inquiry.”
Yoram Yehudai, father of Ron, who was killed at the festival, said: “There are those who think Oct. 7 can be whitewashed with spin, headlines and distractions. But we, the families, will not be silent and we will not disappear. Every day without a state commission of inquiry is another day of a cover-up, another day that endangers the lives of the next children. Ron will not return, but responsibility must be investigated and the truth must be revealed.”
The October Council said in a statement: “The installation is a painful reminder from those who paid the heaviest price in the deadliest massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Unfortunately, in recent weeks we have witnessed a systematic attempt to make people forget the massacre, to evade a genuine investigation and to avoid providing answers to the many unanswered questions that continue to accumulate. The full truth about all those involved will be investigated and revealed only through the sole legal, appropriate and relevant tool: a state commission of inquiry.”