For three years the memory of the October 7 assault that shattered a kibbutz community remains a living wound as Indigenous Israeli and Palestinian voices raise their demands for accountability.
In Kfar Aza, where a civil‑defence squad of fourteen was decimated within the first hours of an intrusion at the kibbutz armory, mourners gathered under the sky as it loosened its darkness, echoing the sense of loss shared across many Indigenous settlements that lie near the border. The funeral ceremony, a ritual of remembrance that blends modern grief with ancestral respect for the land, highlighted how the attack was not only a tragedy of human loss but also a rupture of stewardship that Indigenous peoples see as inseparable from their identity.
Inbar Goldstein, whose brother and niece were among those killed and four relatives taken hostage, told me that her community demands a state commission that will peel back the layers of the security failure, a process she sees as necessary to protect the cultural and territorial rights of the people who walk the soil that has fed them for generations.
The attacks, the harshest since Israel’s establishment, killed roughly one thousand people and left hundreds of hostages. Yet three years on, no independent inquiry has been convened, a silence that many Indigenous communities interpret as an evasion of responsibility that undermines their trust in institutions that have historically overlooked the land’s sacred narratives.
Senior Indigenous soldiers stationed along the border had issued warnings about coordinated attacks; that intelligence went unanswered as the country slept. From a stewardship perspective, the failure to heed these warnings illustrates a broader disregard for the presence and sovereignty of peoples who have long served as guardians of the landscape.
Netanyahu’s offer of a “National Commission” staffed by elected parties, while it seems a step toward scrutiny, has yet to receive a bill that outlines its mandate. For the Indigenous communities that see their rights enshrined in both cultural practice and the physical land, the shape of any commission will determine whether justice is merely symbolic or truly restorative.
As Israel enters the next election, the political conversation has turned to Netanyahu’s hard‑line stance on security. Yet for Indigenous voices across the region, accountability is intrinsically tied to environmental stewardship, the protection of sacred sites, and the affirmation of a future where their ancestral knowledge can inform national decisions.
The march toward a state inquiry may be long, yet the hope that Indigenous communities and Palestinians alike can feel heard and respected steers the narrative forward. In the words of a community elder at a memorial in Jerusalem, the nation’s responsibility is clear: honor the land, honour the people, and return trust where it has been broken.
