Three years after October 7, families are still living with the absence of people who should have come home. A birthday arrives. A child reaches a milestone. Someone instinctively picks up the phone, then remembers.

Around 1 200 people were killed when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Families were murdered in their homes, young people were hunted at a music festival, and 251 children, parents and grandparents were taken hostage. It was the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

The passage of time has brought another responsibility alongside remembrance: defending the truth about what happens when Jews and Israelis are targeted.

Too often, reality is distorted to preserve a predetermined conclusion. Israel must be guilty, even when Israelis are the intended victims. Jewish suffering must conceal some manipulation. Evidence becomes inconvenient; conspiracy supplies the preferred answer.

Two subsequent attacks illustrate how far this thinking can go.

On 14 December 2025, shooters attacked a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, killing 15 people. Families had gathered to celebrate a Jewish festival. Their presence in a public space became an opportunity for mass murder. 

False claims soon sought to turn the victims into accomplices. ABC News Verify documented an artificial intelligence-generated image depicting wounded survivor Arsen Ostrovsky having fake blood applied to his face. It appeared in an article alleging “Mossad propaganda”. A man injured in a terrorist attack was recast as an actor in an Israeli deception.

Then just last week came the attack aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 to Israel. Israeli passengers displayed extraordinary courage, intervening alongside crew after the captain was attacked. Their actions, the wounded captain’s bravery, and the pilots who brought the aircraft down safely helped avert catastrophe. The prosecutor-general of the United Arab Emirates subsequently classified the incident as a terrorist act.

Online Claims

Yet even this became an occasion to blame Israel. Claims spread online that the attack was an Israeli “false flag”, turning a narrowly averted catastrophe into another accusation against its intended victims. In South Africa, early coverage described a “pilots’ brawl”, ignoring reports that carried the UAE’s finding of an attempted terrorist attack. The facts demanded attention: Israeli passengers had helped save lives. Conspiracy theorists instead sought to implicate Israel, without evidence. When even Israeli heroism must be recast as Israeli deception, prejudice has displaced any honest effort to establish the truth.

These examples expose a vicious logic: when Jews are attacked, blame Israel; when Israelis help save lives, invent an Israeli plot. Such claims deny victims even the dignity of having their experiences acknowledged.

Criticism of Israeli policy is legitimate. Fabricating evidence to blame Israel for attacks on Jews is dishonest and dangerous. Calling it political debate does not make it so.

For South Africans, the distinction matters. Our commitment to human dignity cannot depend on whether a victim fits a favoured political narrative. Historical grievances cannot justify murdering families. Opposition to a government cannot justify taking its citizens hostage.

Nor should South African Jews have to renounce their connection to Israel to be treated as fellow citizens whose grief deserves respect.

That connection is profound. Israel is home to our relatives and friends, and central to our history, language, and collective identity. Its people’s safety matters to us. Its future matters to us. We will not apologise for that.

Unwavering

Our support for Israel and Zionism is unwavering. Zionism affirms the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. We will defend that right openly and confidently. Attempts to turn “Zionist” into a slur will not persuade us to abandon it.

Israel has the right to exist, to protect its citizens and to secure a future in which families can live without the threat of another October 7. Supporting those rights leaves ample room to debate government decisions and the means by which security is pursued. It also leaves room to recognise Palestinian suffering and support a future of dignity and safety for both peoples.

What it cannot accommodate is the demand that Jewish self-determination itself be treated as illegitimate.

Many South Africans understand this. Across faiths and political differences, people have offered solidarity without requiring Jews to surrender their convictions. Their example shows that disagreement need not extinguish decency.

Political leaders, editors, and educators have a responsibility to uphold that standard. Test allegations against evidence. Challenge conspiracies, including when they come from your own political allies. Refuse to hold local Jewish people collectively responsible for a foreign government.

The South African Zionist Federation will continue to defend Israel’s legitimacy, challenge falsehoods, and build relationships with those prepared to engage honestly.

Three years after October 7, remembrance demands moral clarity. The murdered deserve to be remembered as people. Survivors deserve to be believed on the evidence. Their families deserve compassion without conditions.

And the Jewish people deserve what we insist upon for others: the right to live, to belong, and to determine their own future.

Craig Pantanowitz is the Chair of the South African Zionist Federation.