On the third anniversary of October 7, 2023, the darkest day in Israel’s history, JSpaceCanada remembers the 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals murdered in Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack. We remember those who were taken hostage, including those who never returned alive. We hold close the survivors, the bereaved families, and all those in Israel and around the world whose lives were forever changed by the violence, terror, and trauma of that day.
We also hold onto the extraordinary relief of seeing hostages return home alive and reunite with their families. For three years, we joined Israelis, Jews around the world, and people of conscience everywhere in demanding their freedom. Every person who came home was a reminder of something that must remain at the centre of our politics and our humanity: every human life is precious.
As a pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Jewish Zionist organization, we believe that remembering October 7 also requires us to reckon honestly with the three years that followed.
The Hamas atrocities of October 7 required Israel to defend itself, but that does not mean now defending the indefensible. We cannot look away from the immense devastation that the ensuing war inflicted on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Tens of thousands have been killed, families have been destroyed, communities have been displaced, and more than two million people have endured years of war, deprivation, and uncertainty. Their suffering matters too.
A year ago, we were still fighting for a ceasefire that would bring the hostages home and end the war. Today, even as we are grateful that the guns have largely fallen silent and the hostages have returned, the work of building something better from the devastation remains unfinished.
Hamas cannot be permitted to govern Gaza or threaten Israelis again. Israel cannot permanently occupy Gaza or deny Palestinians their right to self-determination. Reconstruction must begin in earnest, humanitarian needs must be met, and the international community, including Canada, must work with Israelis, Palestinians, and regional partners toward credible Palestinian governance and a political horizon that leads to two states.
October 7 demonstrated with horrifying clarity the consequences of abandoning the pursuit of peace. The three years since have demonstrated, with equal clarity, that overwhelming military force cannot by itself produce the security Israelis deserve or the freedom Palestinians deserve.
Our Zionism demands that we fight for a secure, democratic Jewish state of Israel. Our commitment to peace, sovereignty, and self-determination demands that we fight just as firmly for Palestinians to realize their own right to freedom, dignity, security, and self-determination in an independent state of Palestine.
These commitments are not contradictory, rather, they depend upon one another.
Today, we mourn. We remember. And we recommit ourselves to the difficult work of building a different future, one in which Israelis and Palestinians alike can live in freedom and security, and in which neither people’s future is built upon the suffering or subjugation of the other.
Three years after October 7, that future can feel painfully distant. But abandoning it would mean accepting that endless war, occupation, terrorism, and grief are inevitable. We refuse to accept that. There must be another way, and we will continue working toward it.