Huckabee, Arkansas officials mark 3rd anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel

Arkansas elected officials, faith leaders and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee decried what they described as a rewriting of the history surrounding the deadly 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel as they marked the third anniversary Wednesday. 

“If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they could have done it in two and a half hours. They have the military capacity. Gaza is the size of Las Vegas. They intentionally did not,” Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and father of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told attendees at the Capitol for the commemoration held by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers.

About 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 taken hostage by Hamas fighters in the early morning attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. More than 74,000 people have been killed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its figures but says around half were women and children. The military campaign has displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population and destroyed vast areas.

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The widespread destruction has garnered international criticism and accusations that Israel is committing genocide, while U.S. military support for the nation has grown more polarizing in the years since the attacks.

Wednesday’s event at the state Capitol featured remarks from Sanders, Attorney General Tim Griffin and others. Many thanked Sanders and the Legislature for their support of Israel in the years since the attacks.

“In 2024, my predecessor came to this building carrying footage recorded by the terrorists themselves on Oct. 7,” said Israel’s Consul General to the Southwest Adi Farjon Israel. She said more than 100 members of the Arkansas Legislature attended a screening of that footage.

“That matters, because three years later, some are trying to rewrite what happened on Oct. 7,” Farjon Israel said. 

Farjon Israel commended the move by the Legislature last year to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which came as part of a law requiring public schools and universities to treat harassment or discrimination with “antisemitic intent” the same as they would treat any other form of discrimination prohibited by state or federal law.

Speakers sometimes used graphic terms when describing the violence of the attacks, which targeted a music festival as well as civilian homes. 

“We can’t even understand the pain the Jewish people are going through these days, and the world is celebrating, and shouting, ‘From the river to the sea,’” said Albert Veksler, co-founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Dinner, referring to a controversial phrase that has been adopted by pro-Palestinian protestors and vilified by Israel’s supporters. 

A ceasefire that took effect in October halted the heaviest of the fighting, though Israel strikes have continued. A United Nations commission established to investigate allegations of humanitarian and human rights law violations in Israel issued a report last year saying Israel had committed genocide in the territory — findings the nation has denied.