Israel’s former President Reuven Rivlin on Monday honored 13 Bedouins for their heroic actions during Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, at an event in Jerusalem hosted by The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI) in collaboration with The Friends of Zion Museum, a Christian-Zionist institution.
Israeli Minister Avi Dichter also attended the event.
During the ceremony, Rivlin bestowed awards upon the Bedouin heroes commemorating their acts of valor, which saved hundreds of Jewish lives.
In his address, Rivlin expressed disappointment over Israel being wrongly blamed for the events of Oct. 7. He urged vigilance, telling global leaders: “It is your duty to ensure that ‘never again’ truly never happens again.”
Said AGPI founder and CEO Avi Abraham Benlolo: “By honoring the Bedouin community today in Jerusalem, we are upholding the essence of our mission at AGPI, fostering interfaith partnerships and fortifying Israel by embracing pro-Israel communities—bringing them under our Abrahamic tent.”
On Oct. 7, 25 residents of Rahat, the largest Bedouin city in Israel’s Negev desert, headed to Gaza border communities Kibbutz Holit and Kibbutz Sufa to work and did not return.
They were among the 1,200 people killed by Hamas during its invasion of Israel that morning. Thousands more were wounded, and more than 250 were taken back to Gaza as hostages, including six Bedouin.
Two of them, Bilal Ziyadne,18, and Aisha Ziyadne,17, abducted from Holit, were among the 105 hostages returned as part of a November ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
