So, after the day has passed, I wanted to write a bit about what this date, October 7th 2023, means to me.

The government tried doing a full-blown populist takeover and switching to a Hungarian style "democracy". Initially it tried the Hungarian model of "all at once", and failed. When this failed, it switched to the Polish model: try sneaking in key legislation changes one by one. It was not clear if this was working.

Protest was still boiling. For instance, In the week-long vacation of Sukkot, #Netanyahu was on vacation in Neve Ativ in the north. Many of us camped near by with much noise and rejoice and anger. Because we would not allow Netayahu to have a quiet vacation. At the same time in Tel Aviv religious fanatics were trying to divert the attention by focusing on a issues with prayers in public. One showdown was in the main holiday of Sukkot. Another round was to be held at the end of Sukkot, in Simchat Tora, on Saturday, Oct 7th.

So there were focused on protesting. And the country was torn. And then the attack happened.

Protests stopped. At the day everyone tried to figure out what they could do to help. It became quickly clear that the government doesn't do anything. And therefore civil society had to step in. Part of civil society was the massive network of protest organization. All the energy of protest had to be diverted to healing and rebuilding.

Furthermore, at that time we all worked together (not exactly all. Most. But you could see who was working). People from all sectors, working together. Both in military reserve duty, and also stepping in when there was no government. The ceremony of Kumu preserves this spirit.

The problem is that this could only work if the people in charge would assume responsibility. But Netanyahu didn't. And once again, just like he engineered a destruction of the whole system to escape conviction in his trial, he now had to destroy this spirit and blame everything on scapegoats in order to escape the trial of the public.

Protesters gradually saw this and renewed protest. I personally started it again at early 2024. But protest has lost its momentum. People were also buy in the endless war. And then, protest was also busy in the goal of bringing back the hostages. Indeed we have managed to do that. That was basically the only major achievement of the post Oct-7th protest. Although the government has also mostly failed to continue in its plan of the "Polish model", mentioned above. This is much to the credit of the legal system: the Supreme Court and the Attorney General. The government was still afraid of actively disobeying the Supreme Court.

So this is why we have different types of ceremonies (there were even others, but let's not confuse even further).

#7october #ilpol #Israel

This morning at 6:29 we held a local mostly-silent demonstration to remember October 7th 2023 and the government that has so far taken no responsibility over it.

You can see part of what happened there (Hebrew) in my Peertube mirror of our local group's Youtube channel: https://tube.shela.nu/w/hvkibKEvhr3idzNsg6f7im .

This has been but one of many local events in many places all over the country. Our government has failed to prevent that horrible day. Furthermore, at that day and the following months, the government simply did not exist: We the people had to do its job. And so far almost none of them has resigned.

Today is 7.10. Elections are on 27.10. In 20 days. And it is our job now, as the people to replace the failed government.

BTW: The government tried to shift even the memory: the official day of remembrance as set by the government was, according to the Jewish Calendar, two days ago. It is set to two days after the date on the Jewish calendar, as the date is a holiday, and you don't want to mix the two.

But the families of the victims have created their own ceremony. And managed to label it as the "National Ceremony". It has gained more attention than the official one. Broadcasted on major TV channels (not on the BB-TV channel-14, of course. But that one is an anti-press channel).

That ceremony will be held later this evening. The protests today were arranged by "the protesters" (loosely aligned with #TheDemocrats [edit: accidentally tagged 'Democrats'. I meant the Israeli left-wing party]). The ceremony is of a movement called Kumu that is more of a centric movement that aims to unite everyone.

#7october #Israel