The Crown Family Center is hosting a panel discussion commemorating the October 7 attack

About 80 people attended a panel discussion at the Segal Visitor Center on Wednesday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel.

The panel discussion, hosted by the Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, was titled “7. October one year later: Currents in Israeli society”. According to the center’s director, David Shyovitz, it aimed to provide historical, political and social contextualization to inspire new perspectives during a difficult time.

Each panelist shared their perspective on the impact of the Hamas-led attack and provided insights into current Israeli society.

Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 killed 1,200 people – including 46 Americans, according to Israeli officials. According to Palestinian officials, more than 41,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip.

The first speaker, Arnon Hershkovitz, an associate professor at Tel Aviv University, said that after October 7 he began volunteering for Bring Them Home Now, an organization dedicated to supporting hostages and their families, after over 250 hostages were taken during the attack.

Hershkovitz said the Israeli government did not help immediately after the attack. It took hours and in some cases even days for the government to reach the border and help Israeli citizens in need, he said.

“Citizens have filled the vacuum left by the government, and these are ordinary citizens, but to anyone who hears their stories, they are extraordinary,” Hershkovitz said.

Hershkovitz said thousands of volunteers banded together to provide transportation, food, shelter and child care to evacuees from the attacked villages.

Today, tens of thousands of displaced people are still being supported by their communities, Hershkovitz added.

“I end with the hope that we will become a better society, that we will have a better future and, most importantly, that all the hostages will return soon,” Hershkovitz said.

Panelist Noa Barak, Ph.D. candidate at Tel Aviv University, next spoke about “The Civil Archives of the October 7th War,” which she co-founded. The archive is a comprehensive documentation of Israeli citizens, focusing on the civic aspects of the war in its broader historical context.

Barak spoke about the Israeli government’s work to create a new archive on October 7 and the events that followed. In her lecture, she said that social perspectives are often lost under the archival dominance of states.

“The goal of the Civil Archives is to create and preserve a comprehensive collection of historical records that reflect the experiences and voices of diverse social groups in Israel,” Barak said. “At the heart of this crisis is a bitter battle over the historical truth of October 7: exactly what happened and why and who is responsible.”

Barak said she is interested in how and by whom the events during and after the Oct. 7 attack are documented. She stressed the importance of recording different perspectives of October 7, outside of government control, to understand its impact on society.

Yael Aronoff, director of the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at Michigan State University, spoke about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and her belief that he has failed Israeli society.

“It also represented a complete failure of the government to prevent the Hamas attack,” Arnoff said. “Why were there so few people at the Gaza border?”

Arnoff said Netanyahu presented himself as “Mr. Security,” but presided over the greatest security failure in Israel’s history.

According to Arnoff, many Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign immediately, while others believe he should resign after the war ends.

The final speaker, Amir Reicher, spoke to the audience via Zoom from Israel, citing his inability to leave the country. Reicher said he is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in the West Bank settlement project. He moved to the West Bank for his research and lived in an outpost settlement for almost two years.

Reicher said the atmosphere at the outposts has changed since the Oct. 7 attack. He described men in the outposts now dressed in full military gear and remaining armed because they fear for their lives since the attack.

Reicher said that for many community members in West Bank settlements, October 7 turned ideological differences into vital community issues. They are ruled by fear instead of ideals, he said.

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