On October 7, 2023, at dawn, the sirens resonated on Israel. In a few minutes, the normality of one morning on Saturday turned into a nightmare. Thousands of rockets were launched by the Gaza strip, while hundreds of Hamas terrorists penetrated beyond the border, sowing death in the Kibbutz and in the border villages. It was a coordinated action, studied in detail. But also, and above all, an action of inhuman ferocity. In Kfar Aza, Be’eri, Netiv Haasara, men and women were killed in their homes. Light burnt children, the elderly executed, youngly mounted by machine guns. In the desert, during a musical rave of young people, hundreds of boys on the run were massacred without pity. This day they died about 1,200 peopleof which more than 850 civilians. Another 250 were kidnapped and brought to Gaza, where many still remain prisoner. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have documented torture, rapes, sexual violence. A horror that has exceeded all limit of war.
A pogrom in the heart of the 21st century
The word “pogrom” is not used lightly. Evokes blind violence, the persecution of a people, ethnic and religious hatred. Yet, for many Israelis and for most of the Jewish world, there is no more suitable definition to describe what happened that day. A pogrom against unarmed civilians, in the heart of the 21st century. A deep wound that has awakened the memory of other persecutions and the echo of an anti -Semitism never dormant. “It wasn’t just a terrorist attack,” said Israeli president Isaac Herzog, “was an attempt to erase our humanity”. On the occasion of the first anniversary, the Yad Vashem of Jerusalem welcomed a ceremony in the presence of religious, diplomatic and Vatican representatives. There, in front of the names of the victims, the pain of a people was renewed but also the request, shared by many, not to let the memory be overwhelmed by indifference.
The duty of memory
Remembering is not just a political or diplomatic question. It is a moral question. Each name, every face, every destroyed family is a warning. On October 7 he showed as far as hatred can arrive when the other of his dignity is stripped. I hate that triggered more hatred. Israel’s response was fierce and disproportionate, as Pope Francis said, devastating the Gaza strip almost totally, creating more than one million displaced people and killing tens of thousands of innocent victims, including at least 15 thousand children. Today, while the war continues and the budget of the victims extends and the light of a truce appears in the midst of darkness, a truth remains that no one can obscure: no cause justifies the extermination of civilians. No ideology can legitimize blind violence. Peace does not arise from weapons, but from mutual recognition. And this, in the Middle East today, still looks like a distant goal.
