Bereaved Israeli Families Urge Next Government to Make Social Cohesion a National Priority

Moshe Shapiro wants Israelis to learn to live together with the same seriousness with which they once learned to protect wildflowers. His son Aner was killed on October 7, 2023, while throwing grenades back out of a roadside shelter to protect fellow Nova music festival-goers. Shapiro is now among the bereaved relatives behind Hamechane, an initiative that seeks to turn social cohesion into a national responsibility.

Ahead of the elections, Shapiro spoke with The Jerusalem Post alongside Hoda Daxa and Shai Zohar. Zohar is the uncle of Capt. Omer Neutra, a lone soldier from New York who was killed on October 7. His body was taken to Gaza and returned in November 2025. Daxa's husband, Col. Ehsan Daxa, commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, was killed leading troops in northern Gaza in October 2024.

The name Hamechane means "the denominator," a reference to the search for common ground. Its members include bereaved families, captivity survivors and people wounded in the Israel-Gaza War. They are asking the next government to create a national framework for social cohesion within its first 100 days. Shapiro pointed to the wildflower campaign, which began in the 1960s, as a model. It paired legal protection with public education until generations of children grew up knowing the cause. He wants respect for others, even amid deep disagreement, to become equally ingrained.

Zohar called internal polarization the country's greatest existential threat and argued that divisions before October 7 helped bring about the catastrophe. "Unity is an operating system, an approach," he said, warning that Israel cannot slip backward and that the nation has "already paid an immense price." He also admitted that, until he heard Daxa, who is Druze, speak about the 2018 Nation-State Law, he had not grasped what it meant for her community. "It went over my head," he said.

The law reserves national self-determination in Israel to the Jewish people, defines Hebrew as the state language and gives Arabic special status, without an explicit equality guarantee. Druze critics say it excludes a community whose soldiers fight for the state. The High Court upheld the law in 2021, reading it as compatible with equality protections. In November 2023, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif called for constitutional recognition of the community's rights, while the coalition promised separate legislation on Druze status.

Daxa said belonging is also tested in everyday moments. She recalled riding a train with her children and speaking Arabic: nobody said anything, but she sensed passengers' discomfort. "Hatred doesn't distinguish," she said. She stressed that unity cannot mean solidarity among Jews alone, and that many people already feel part of Israeli society and want to contribute. Group members vote for different parties, she said, but conversation works because they are willing to learn rather than assume one side is right. "We come with an open heart."

Shapiro described a yearlong process of building a shared vision among religious and secular Jews, haredim, Druze, and people from the Right and Left. "This is the face of Israeli society," he said, adding that no one had to hide their views. He recalled that his grandfather, Haim-Moshe Shapiro, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a minister, urged Prime Minister Levi Eshkol before the Six Day War to bring in opposition parties. In June 1967 the government was widened to include Gahal, led by Menachem Begin, and Rafi, whose members included Moshe Dayan, who became defense minister.

Aner expressed a similar outlook in a social media post written before October 7, after graffiti defaced an image of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He criticized the categories of religious, secular, right-wing and left-wing, and wrote, "There really is no 'them.'" Moshe said he had believed such divisions were fading during the shiva for his son and now feels disappointment at their return.

Hamechane hopes to encourage personal connections through schools, workplaces and communities. Shapiro would like children to learn about different communities and how to listen and handle disagreement, and he wants measures against online activity that inflames hatred. The group has not settled the structure of the body it seeks, leaving that to elected officials and professionals. Daxa said recognizing polarization as a national danger would itself be a start. Shapiro stressed that he is not asking people to sacrifice their lives, only to listen, make room for others and remember that disagreement does not cancel mutual obligations.