Knesset Debate Erupts Over Whether to Move 7 October Memorial Bus Shelters

The Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee held advanced discussions this week on the draft “Memorial Law for the Massacre and the Heroism of October 7,” ahead of second and third readings. One of the most contentious issues was the future of the so-called “death shelters” on Route 232 in the Gaza envelope, after Ynet first reported plans to remove most of them.

Eskhol Regional Council head Michal Uziyahu opposed keeping the shelters in place, saying they pose a safety hazard because many cars stop on the roadside. “You cannot stop life,” she said, calling Route 232 a long-standing “road of blood” and arguing the state should have widened it long ago. She said memorialization should be concentrated in one central site, not left to local authorities and communities, and promised the families, “I will not do a sneak move over their heads.”

Bereaved relatives were split. Mazi Ailon of Kfar Aza, whose partner Tal was killed after going to fight on October 7, said she wants to remember his heroism, but also keep a balance between commemoration and protecting the living. Esther Buchstab, mother of Yagav, who was kidnapped and murdered in Hamas captivity, said living in what feels like a memorial site is difficult and compared it to not leaving bombed buses in Jerusalem. Other families fiercely rejected any move.

Galia Houshen, mother of Hadas, said, “I go up to the shelter more than I go to my daughter’s grave.” Tamar Teshuva said removing the shelters would mean “ripping out our soul.” Manashe Menzouri, who lost his daughters Norel and Roya in the shelters, said, “Even if there are no bones there, there is our children’s blood there.” Bar Mirsky, who survived eight hours in the shelter in Be’eri beside bodies of the murdered, said, “Even Auschwitz was not moved from place to place,” adding that taking the shelter away would erase her memory.

Committee acting chair Yossi Taieb said he did not think he should decide the issue and that it should not be settled in primary legislation. He said transitional provisions would state that no substantial changes would be made on the ground until a public consultation process is completed. The bill also designates 24 Tishrei each year as a state memorial day for the October 7 massacre and heroism, and plans a memory authority in the western Negev with a memorial site, museum and archive. Taieb said the debate will continue next Tuesday until votes are held.