Words and images from a day of mourning

The international day of mourning for the victims of October 7, 2023 began in Sydney with a sunset vigil on Sunday evening. A giant memorial candle sand sculpture was lit in front of Sydney Harbour, and survivor Michal Ohana addressed the crowd.

The ceremony was the first of dozens of memorials around the world remembering the 1200 people killed, 251 kidnapped and thousands more raped, injured, and left homeless after the Hamas invasion last year.

Mourning happened as Israel faced continuing barrages from both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Five people were injured in Haifa and one in Tiberius when Israel's defence system failed to counter Hezbollah rockets. Hamas released its heaviest barrage of rockets in months, targeting southern communities and Tel Aviv.

In Israel, a one minute silence was observed across the country but unlike on Israel’s other memorial days, it wasn’t signaled by a siren. The Home Front Command barred sirens lest Israelis confuse them with those triggered by ongoing rocket fire from Hezbollah and Hamas, and in recognition of the psychological impact on those for whom tragedy began with rocket sirens exactly one year ago.

Memorial ceremonies were held across the country. At the site of the Nova festival near the Gaza border, the families of some 360 people murdered there gathered in the early morning light. Part of the last track played that day — a song, ironically, lasting 6:29, reflecting the exact minute Hamas began its attack — echoed through the air, the pulsating psychedelic trance beats incongruous with the pall that hung over the gathering.

In Jerusalem a third of the city’s residents packed Paris Square to watch a ceremony organised by the victims’ families and broadcast to more than 300 communities. In the southern city of Ofakim, an official ceremony was held with victims families; a human chain was formed in homage to the hostages in Tel Aviv; and hostage families held a vigil outside the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Australia, commemorations were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. On Monday night about 12,000 people gathered in Sydney and another 5,000 in Melbourne for communal commemorations. There was also a communal vigil in central Melbourne on Sunday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, Macnamara MP Josh Burns, and Premier Jacinta Allan attended the Melbourne event, which included a lantern parade, ceremony and art installations. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton spoke at the Sydney event.

Commemoration events were held in Jewish communities around the world. Rabbis and liturgists wrote special prayers to honour victims, candles were lit, songs sung and letters to the victims read.

In the US President Biden lit a candle at the White House, Vice President Harris planted a pomegranate tree at the official residence and President Trump attended a Chabad memorial in New York.  

The German chancellery in Berlin was adorned Monday with a yellow ribbon commemorating the Israeli hostages, and the names of the people killed and kidnapped in the attack on Israel were read out in front of the Brandenburg Gate. In Britain, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer addressed the house on the subject and in Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni paid tribute at the Great Synagogue in Rome.

Politics shadows grief

Politics was not put aside for the day of mourning. Israel’s official ceremony was pre-recorded without an audience. While large gatherings are prevented by security concerns, many saw the arrangement as an attempt to avoid direct interaction between government officials and the families of victims, many of whom are incensed at the government’s handling of the ongoing hostage crisis and have protested widely against it.

On Melbourne and Sydney streets on Sunday and Monday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators used the occasion to prosecute their case, as well as remembering their own dead. The demonstrations included symbols supporting terrorism: green Hamas flags, red triangles and images of the recently assassinated leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. 

In Sydney, Arizona State University associate professor Khaled Beydoun told a rally in front of Lakemba mosque that October 7 was a “good day”. “Today is not fully a day of mourning, today is also a day that marks considerable celebration, considerable progress and considerable privilege,” he said.

His comments prompted Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to say he was reviewing Beydoun's visa.

At the Melbourne memorial, Zionism Victoria president Yossi Goldberg criticised the Australian government for not standing more firmly with Israel, earning cheers from the crowd. No politicians spoke at the event and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who had been expected to attend, instead attended a memorial event in Canberra, amid fears that her presence would cause heavy criticism from the Jewish community.

In Sydney, Dutton used his speech to call out "a moral fog of moral ambiguity, of moral equivalence, and of immorality" in Australia.

"Following the shocking events on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, there’s been a vacuum of leadership. In that vacuum, intolerable incidents have been tolerated," he said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt released a statement saying the murder and kidnapping of October 7 were “appalling” and “deserve nothing less than our most full condemnation as a community”, but went on to attack Israel, saying “the very same commitment to compassion, honesty, peace and justice required of us in response to those attacks of Hamas requires us as Greens to call out the war crimes and genocide that is being carried out by the state of Israel right now in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories and the bombing and invasion of Lebanon”.

What the leaders said

Israeli President Isaac Herzog

October 7, 2023, is a day that should be remembered in infamy, when thousands of cruel terrorists broke into our homes, violated our families, burned, chopped, raped, and hijacked and abducted our citizens, our brothers and sisters, and with them, people from 36 different nationalities.

This is a scar on humanity. This is a scar on the face of the Earth.

We have to do whatever we can by all ways and means possible to bring back our hostages who are there in the tunnels and dungeons of Gaza. And the world has to realize and understand that in order to change the course of history and bring peace, a better future to the region, it must support Israel in its battle against its enemies. We are fighting the battle of the free world. We are fighting for a better future for the region. We are fighting for a future of peace. This cannot be done without enabling us to defeat our enemies and bring peace and a better direction to the entire region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Since that dark day, we have been fighting what I call the 'War of Restoration'. We are attacking on seven fronts, and our counteroffensive against Iran’s axis of evil is essential to securing our future and safety.

We will end this war by achieving all our objectives: toppling Hamas, bringing all our captives home — both the fallen and the living — eliminating all future threats from Gaza, and ensuring the safe return of our citizens in the south and north to their homes. Today, we bow our heads in memory of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, parents and elders, who were massacred by Hamas terrorists — children murdered in cold blood, women and men slaughtered, entire families wiped out.

IDF Chief Herzi Halevi

A year has passed since October 7, the day we failed in our mission to protect the citizens of the State of Israel… October 7 is not only a day of remembrance but also a day calling for a deep soul-searching. To recognize failures and learn from them, while examining the challenges, those that have been and those that are yet to come.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

We unequivocally condemn Hamas' actions on that day. Innocent lives taken at a music festival. Women, men and children killed in their homes. Brutality that was inflicted with cold calculation...

Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day and as a nation, we say, never again. We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith.

Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton

Israel has every right to defend its territory, and its people, from existential threats. From Hamas. From Hezbollah. From the Houthis. And from the Iranian regime which sponsors them all. This is a time to distinguish the lawful from the lawless, civilisation from barbarism, and good from evil.

This is a time to speak truthfully about the threat of antisemitism in our great country. Antisemitism is not only a threat to one segment of our community. It is a threat to our social cohesion, to our democratic values, and to our way of life.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer

Nobody in this House can truly imagine what it feels like to cower under the bodies of your friends, hoping a terrorist won't find you minutes after dancing at a music festival. No one can truly imagine seeing your city, your homes, your hospital, your businesses obliterated, with your neighbours and family buried underneath.

It is beyond our comprehension – and with that should come humility.

US President Joe Biden

The October 7 attack brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of hatred and violence against the Jewish people.

I believe that history will also remember October 7 as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day. Far too many civilians have suffered far too much during this year of conflict.

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