A group of people celebrated Simchat Torah near the Nova music festival memorial site on Saturday, despite a ban issued by the police and the KKL-JNF, N12 News reported.
The event organizers had asked for their actions to be respected in the sense that there are “different ways in which different families choose to mark the day their loved ones ascended to heaven in the attack,” according to the report.
The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund later responded that the site is one of “remembrance and communion,” saying visits to the memorial during the holiday are permitted only for that purpose.
“In coordination with the Israel Police and security and rescue authorities, no permission will be given to hold events or organized activities that are not for the purposes of remembrance and communion,” the KKL-JNF declared.
N12 published footage of the event, with the cameraman commenting that they “agreed that it [the celebration] wouldn’t take place here.”
KKL-JNF chairman: We must preserve sanctity, memory of victims
KKL-JNF chairman Eyal Ostrinsky called the event inappropriate.
“Just as no one would dare contemplate holding a party at the Auschwitz extermination camp, it is equally unthinkable to hold any celebration at the Nova site in Re’im Forest, where 378 civilians and members of the security forces were murdered,” he said. “We are guided by one single objective: preserving the sanctity of the memory of those murdered.”
He said this was the organization’s approach when it undertook the investment of millions to establish a memorial site at a time when the state hadn’t.
“This is how KKL-JNF acted at the Nova site in Re’im Forest, and likewise in the North, the Jordan Valley, and the South – regions where we at KKL-JNF have invested billions of shekels,” he said.
JNF, police bans enacted following similar Simchat Torah event last year
Relatives of victims were not happy with the gathering.
“On this day, my sister was murdered; my family members were murdered,” bereaved family member Omri Rahum told N12. “They are dancing on their blood.”
“On the monument, on the memorial display, on this sacred area, they are dancing, rejoicing, sleeping and eating,” he said. “It is not appropriate. It is like we would not want them to do this at Auschwitz, Yad Vashem, or any cemetery. From our perspective, it is equivalent to any of these things, if not more.”
A similar celebration took place at the site in 2025, which angered the families of October 7 attack victims. As a result, the KKL-JNF and police banned such events.