The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to allocate 320 million shekels (around $86 million) to memorialize Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and the ensuing Swords of Iron War, including the establishment of a national commemoration authority.
“The decision expresses the commitment of the State of Israel to a proper and meaningful commemoration. To this end, considerable resources have been invested in planning and implementation,” according to a government statement.
A total of 190 million shekels (some $51 million) will be spent in the first stage, with an additional 130 million shekels ($35 million) being invested in the second stage. The budgets are designated for the development and preservation of heritage infrastructure in 2024-28, and to the establishment of a national commemorative site and authority.
Knesset legislation is currently being advanced on formulating a comprehensive operative framework for the commemorative and remembrance actions.
Last month, the government tapped Transport Minister Miri Regev to organize the upcoming state ceremonies marking one year since the Oct. 7 cross-border Hamas massacre.
This year’s events will be held on the date “engraved in the public consciousness in Israel and the world as the day of the terrible massacre,” the Cabinet said, adding that events will be held according to the Hebrew calendar starting next year.
In March, the Cabinet voted to mark the massacre with an annual commemoration on the 24th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. (Oct. 7, 2023, was the 22nd of Tishrei, but it was also Simchat Torah, and the government would never schedule a memorial day on a Jewish holiday.)
The events will be marked separately from Remembrance Day (Yom Hazikaron) for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism, which is held on the 4th of Iyar, a day before Independence Day.
Every National Remembrance Day for the Disaster That Befell the State of Israel on October 7 and the Swords of Iron War, two state ceremonies will be held: One at 11 a.m. in honor of those killed in action in the war against Hamas in Gaza, and another at 1 p.m. in memory of the civilians murdered during the terrorist group’s invasion of the northwestern Negev.
Because the 24th of Tishrei this year coincides with Shabbat (on Oct. 26), these ceremonies are scheduled to take place on Sunday, Oct. 27.
