Courtesy of JTA. Photo credit: Yair Palti/Anadolu via Getty Images
People stage a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government, who rejected the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, Israel on Feb. 8, 2026
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignited outcry after his office requested to remove the word “massacre” from the title of a bill commemorating the Oct. 7 attacks.
During a discussion of the bill in the Knesset on Feb. 11, Yoel Elbaz, a Netanyahu representative, proposed that the title of the bill should use the Hebrew word for “events” rather than “massacre.”
He argued that the bill should show that Oct. 7 was “was not only a massacre — there was also heroism.”
“The word massacre will be written within the law — later on, just as it will be written that there was murder and rape and all the things that were done,” Elbaz said during the discussion.
Still, the official request has triggered a backlash at a time when Netanyahu is facing scrutiny over his willingness to accept responsibility for Oct. 7, when 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage during a siege from Gaza that lasted for much of a day.
Last week, Netanyahu released a 55-page document detailing his answers to a state-led investigation into the attacks where he cast blame on his political rivals. On Feb.11, the Knesset also discussed Netanyahu’s effort to appoint an investigative body instead of supporting a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority.
The October 7 Council, which represents the families of those murdered during the attacks, wrote that the request for the title change represented “the Prime Minister’s Office’s latest attempt to cover up the October 7 massacre.”
“We are here to state clearly: there was a massacre. We paid the highest possible price for it. We will ensure that everyone responsible is investigated by a state commission of inquiry and also pays the price,” the statement read, adding, “No politician’s blood is redder than the blood of our children, our brothers, and our parents. Shame on you.”
Individual family members also lambasted the wording proposal.
“He will not be allowed to whitewash it,” tweeted Manny Manzuri, whose daughters Roya and Norelle were murdered at the Nova music festival. “What you are putting us through. Dragging us into the darkness that we try to climb out of, every single day anew.”
The parents of Libi Cohen-Meguri, also killed at Nova, published a video criticizing the wording. “There was no Holocaust, only ‘demographic decline,’” her father, Yariv Yogev, offered as an analogy for the “events” language.
And Hila Abir, the sister of Lotan Abir, also murdered at the Nova festival, spoke at the Knesset hearing. “This law will pass over my dead body,” she said, according to the Times of Israel. “Where is the death of our brothers and children? It was all erased!”
Netanyahu’s political rivals also criticized the language proposal.
“Netanyahu joins antisemites who deny that there was a massacre against Jews on 7.10, and is working to remove the word ‘massacre’ from the law commemorating 7.10!,” the Israeli lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman wrote in a post on social media. “There was a massacre, rape and barbaric murder on a scale we haven’t seen since the Holocaust. So the disgusting attempt to rewrite history — won’t help. We can’t let him escape responsibility!”
In a post on social media, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, seen as a top contender to prevail in this year’s elections, wrote that “only a detached government tries to erase a massacre etched in blood into every Jewish heart.”
Netanyahu’s office rejected the criticism, saying that the bill is intended to “ensure a worthy and complete commemoration for future generations” and contending that the focus on the title was misplaced.
“Contrary to recent reports, the word ‘massacre’ appears explicitly in the bill,” the statement continued. “The bill is intended to commemorate the events of October 7 in their full severity and scope — the massacre, the battles and fighting, the stories of the hostages, the fallen and the returnees, as well as the manifestations of heroism, evil and mutual support of Israeli citizens and the security forces.”
