On the Third Yahrzeit of the Hamas Massacre: Can We Not Mourn in Peace?
This yahrzeit was different. October 7th has become a day to celebrate Jew-hatred. It has become a day to celebrate barbaric Hamas terrorists and their brutal massacre of the Jewish people. October 7th has become a day to sanction antisemitism and Jew-hatred around the world.
Jews are not given the space to mourn our dead in peace. Who does that? Palestinianists do not want there to be even a drop of sympathy for the Jewish people. They are louder and they outnumber us.
But, being louder doesn’t make you right. Demonstrating when others are mourning certainly doesn’t make you right. In New York City demonstrators were drowning out the names of the dead while they were being read to mourners. I remember when Westboro Baptist Church traveled around the country to picket the funerals of gay people. It was despicable. Demonstrating against a community while they are grieving is contemptable and vile.
What happened around the world on Oct 7, 2026, when Jews were mourning the victims of the Hamas butchery and the bloodbath of October 7, 2023? From Ankara to Montral and from New York City to Manchester – people marched, loudly and rowdily, in support of Hamas, in support of “their martyrs.” Have you no decency, people? Where is the humanity in interfering with a community in mourning.
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A few specific incidents: From the Singular to the Plural to the Crazy…
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Singular (a few examples – there are many more)
*In Utrecht, Netherlands, at the country’s largest railway station, a pro-Hamas terrorist mob kicked and beat Dutch award-winning Jewish author and journalist, Jigal Krant, after he voiced displeasure with their anti-Israel protest. Ironically, yet not a surprise, the police left the mob alone and demanded Krant’s details.
*In Mequon, Wisconsin, Green Party congressional candidate Matthew Arndt spit out a profanity-laced invective against Israel on October 8th. Arndt yelled: “Go f*** yourself. Post it on social media. I’m running for Congress here in the 6th district and f*** Israel! Go f*** yourself.”
*In Davis, CA, at UC Davis, JCHAI, the Jewish faculty and staff association at UC Davis, reserved and paid for a gathering place on campus in early September for an event to be held on October 7th. The university knew a protest was planned for the same place, and it promised, in writing, that their reservation would not be affected by demonstrators marching against Israel.
However, the JCHAI gathering was overwhelmed and fully disrupted; about 40 masked protesters took over the space. They stood directly in front of the Jewish table and chanted “We love Hamas,” “Al-Qassam, you make us proud,” and “Kill another soldier.” Al-Qassam is the Hamas unit that led the October 7th massacre. UC police and campus leaders were there. They allowed the disruption to go on for more than an hour.
*In Berlin, Germany, 67-year-old, wheelchair-bound shopkeeper Hans-Georg Lindenau was repeatedly attacked by groups of youths, 10-15 years old, because he displayed posters opposing antisemitism marking the third anniversary of the brutal Hamas massacre of Jews. The youths attacked his shop three different times, each time beating Lindenau while spraying him with pepper spray. The investigation is ongoing. The police think it might be an antisemitic event. (Really???)
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Plural (a few examples – there are many more)
*The Green Party of England and Wales passed a motion at its annual conference defining Zionism as racism. They claim that Zionism is “an ethnonationalist political project” and repeated their call for Britain’s Labour government to end all arms trade with Israel. The Greens received 6% of the vote in a national election in 2024; they now have around 10% support in recent opinion polls.
*Parliament, London, England, Ed Miliband, Foreign Secretary, stated that Britain would ban imports from Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. They would also prohibit advertising in the UK for settlement property, and the UK would impose sanctions on companies and individuals involved in financing, construction, infrastructure and other activity supporting settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria.
*Oslo, Norway, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded the Peace Prize to human rights lawyer, Navi Pillay, of South Africa. Pillay chaired a UN inquiry that investigated the Gaza/Israel War and concluded that Israeli government actions amounted to genocide against Palestinians, even though it has been proven, over and over again, that Israel has not committed genocide in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Nobel committee of losing its moral compass and dismissed Pillay’s findings. The Israeli Foreign Ministry called the award “the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice.” The depiction of genocide in Gaza is a moral inversion; the population is Gaza is the same now as it was two years ago – two million people. How can this be labeled a genocide?
Article II of the 1948 Geneva Convention defines genocide as “specific acts committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part, including killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting calculated life conditions, preventing births, or forcibly transferring children.” These are all acts committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
At that same convention, it was explicitly noted that heavy civilian losses in war “do not as a rule constitute genocide.” Calling Israel a genocide is another moral inversion.
Possibly, the Nobel Committee was attempting to legitimize South African academics, while, at the same time, justifying the concept of genocide in Gaza. Previously, South Africa has won only ten Nobel Prizes, four of which have been for peace – only four have been in the sciences. Jews have punched far above their weight in Nobel Prizes – 220+ Nobel Prizes in all categories. Maybe this was an affirmative action prize because it certainly wasn’t an honestly awarded prize.
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Crazy (one is enough)
FlyDubai Airlines, headquartered in United Arab Emirates, almost lost a plane full of passengers on September 30, 2026. The FlyDubai co-pilot, 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami, attacked the captain, Smit Machchhar, with an axe in the cockpit. Machchhar struggled as Hammami continued attacking, but, even though he had been seriously wounded, Machchhar was able to press the release button (B”H) to open the cabin door and passengers stopped the attack.
There were two other pilots on board, but they were very slow to react even though the plane had plunged 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. Passengers entered the cockpit, overpowered the co-pilot, one passenger pulled the plane out of its descent, and the slow-going, second pair of FlyDubai pilots safely landed the jet in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Since that time, there have been questions about the two additional pilots as well as the flight attendants on board. Hammami claims he was working alone. However, the flight attendants on the plane – all male – unusual, especially for such a small airline, tried to loosen the restraints on Hammami and to give him a pill. Passengers stopped them. The flight attendants also told passengers they couldn’t film any incidents. Some passengers became suspicious of the crew members and reported the incidents after safely landing.
Supposedly, the two extra pilots were on board to fly the plane back to Dubai from Tel Aviv. At the time of this writing, the pilots, other FlyDubai pilots, and the flight attendants are being investigated. There is some discussion that they had all studied at a mosque in Australia where they had absorbed extremist views.
Thankfully the plane landed safely; thankfully they made it back to Israel. But what was really happening? If Hammami wasn’t working alone, what was going on? One humble guess is that he wasn’t planning on crashing into Ben Gurion Airport. The plan was to hijack the plane – with the other crew members – to another destination. Perhaps the hijackers planned to trade the passengers for hundreds of criminals from Israeli prisons. Maybe the hijackers would have had a special event for October 7th. That is a frightful thought.
As of now, Israel has not been involved in the investigations. The public will learn more with time and with Israel’s involvement. This is a developing story.
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Conclusion
The anti-Israel attacks and tirades and demonstrations are not about support for Palestinians. They are not about a two-state solution. They are about intimidating Jews. Whether it is canceling Jews from events or canceling them in political parties, it won’t work. Even attempted hijacking won’t work.
The Palestinianist strategy is obvious: scare Jews into discontinuing their support for Israel. Israel will then be cornered into a one-state solution. Next, Palestinians will overtake the country – from the river to the sea. The rest will be history. However, what this strategy has been accomplishing is to lessen support in the Jewish community for a two-state solution. And it strengthens Jewish resolve.
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Bigotry from ancient times to modern times: Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism to Anti-Zionism. The latest way to look at the oldest hatred.
As a proud Jewish woman, I can say ̶ we’re not going anywhere. We won’t be intimidated. We won’t be silenced. Never Again means Never Again. Am Yisrael Chai.
