On the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Israel's unresolved questions about who bears responsibility for the failures that day erupted into an open confrontation. On Wednesday evening, October 7, 2026, some 40 right-wing activists organized by the Otzma Yehudit party protested outside the home of Eyal Naveh, co-founder of Brothers and Sisters in Arms — an IDF reservist protest movement born from opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2022 judicial overhaul — blaming his group for the deadliest day in Israeli history.
"We Will Neither Forgive Nor Forget"
During the 2022–23 overhaul protests, many Brothers and Sisters in Arms members signaled they would stop volunteering for reserve duty if the overhaul passed — a threat the far right now links directly to October 7. After the Hamas attack, however, the group ran a central clearinghouse for civilian support and called its members back to active reservist duty.
Activists outside Naveh's home handed out T-shirts, flags, and signs reading "betrayal from within" and "refusalists are traitors." Lawmaker Tally Gotliv, who left Likud for Otzma Yehudit last month, addressed the crowd: she urged strengthening National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's poll position so he could be appointed defense minister ("If you give him the strength, he will be the next defense minister"), said Naveh and his group bore responsibility for the October 7 victims, and declared that "until the group's members request forgiveness for calling on reservists not to report for duty before the war, 'we will neither forgive nor forget.'"
The Other Side: A Nation Demanding a State Inquiry
The same anniversary saw thousands of Israelis demand answers in a very different direction: a state commission of inquiry. The October Council, an organization of bereaved families, held a nationwide minute of silence observed at hundreds of locations, with over 500 municipalities and institutions taking part. Protesters dyed the Dizengoff Square fountain water red, simulating blood; on Trumpeldor Beach, hundreds of painted bodies were laid out on the sand representing the victims; a convoy from Caesarea to Tel Aviv retraced the route Netanyahu took on October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu himself has previously dismissed the theory that the judicial-overhaul protests weakened Israel as "bogus." Brothers and Sisters in Arms has previously filed defamation suits against right-wing figures blaming it for October 7, seeking about $53,600 and apologies. As of publication, no response from the group to Wednesday's protest has been reported. An N12 poll found 47% of Israelis blame the government and IDF equally for the failures, and 65% say Netanyahu bears "a great deal of responsibility" — with the October 27 election under three weeks away.
The takeaway: three years on, Israel is still fighting over who failed on October 7 — protesters outside one man's home blaming reservists, thousands more in the streets demanding a state inquiry, and an election looming that will judge the question.
Sources: Haaretz · The Jerusalem Post
Watch: DWS News: Israelis rally in Tel Aviv three years after Oct. 7, demanding a state inquiry
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Hitman (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0