OPINION
Editor’s Note: This article was written ahead of the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks and is published here in its original form.
Today, October 7, our community will remember the victims of the massacre perpetrated by Hamas. We will gather to honor those who were murdered, embrace the survivors, and stand beside the families whose lives were shattered forever. In Buenos Aires, other organizations will choose this very date to march under the slogan “It didn’t start on October 7.”
They could have chosen any other day. They chose the anniversary of the massacre. And that immoral choice carries a meaning that no slogan can conceal.
Between those of us who honor the victims and those who glorify their tormentors, there is more than a difference of opinion. There is a moral abyss. One that separates the defense of life from the glorification of terror. One that separates those who mourn a murdered child from those who find excuses for that child’s killers.
Hamas chose to breach the security fence to murder, torture, rape, and abduct. That criminal decision triggered the war that followed and forced Israel to defend its population. No prior history turns rape into an act of resistance. No cause makes the abduction of a baby a heroic deed. No flag legitimizes the murder of a family.
In the face of those who celebrate or justify these crimes, our position is unequivocal.
While they celebrate rapists, we embrace the women who were raped and defend their right to be heard.
While they rally behind abductors, we stand beside those who endured captivity and the families who knew the anguish of waiting.
While they glorify murderers, we remember the victims, speak their names, and keep their memory alive.
While they champion terrorists, we condemn terrorism, without excuses, without disguises, and without exceptions.
While they turn death into a slogan, we celebrate life: the lives of our children, our families, and every person who deserves to live without fear.
That is the abyss. And we will not pretend it does not exist simply to make the conversation more comfortable.
Anyone who defends human rights must be able to condemn Hamas without hesitation. Anyone who claims to care about children must be able to confront the horror inflicted on.
Israeli children. Anyone who demands justice must begin by acknowledging the victims, even when doing so makes their political allies uncomfortable.
The organizers of this march—small, fringe groups—have chosen to turn a day of mourning into a provocation. Their size does not diminish the gravity of that gesture. Using the anniversary of the massacre to attack Israel while evading Hamas’s responsibility provides moral cover for those who unleashed the horror.
We will respond through our values. With remembrance, with dignity, and with the conviction that rebuilding is also a way of defending life. We will remember those who should still be among us: playing in a park, dancing at a festival, sharing a meal, embracing their children.
We will not accept their murderers being portrayed as heroes. We will not allow their names to disappear behind a slogan. We will not accept our grief being used to justify the crime that caused it.
Today, we will reaffirm who we are and what we stand for. Let those who glorify Hamas answer for the flags they fly. Between life and terror lies a moral abyss.
And we know which side we stand on.
BY FEDERICO NEMETSKY,
President of the Zionist Organization of Argentina and lives in Buenos Aires.