Families of Fallen Set 100-Day Unity Clock

Moshe Shapiro is asking the next Israeli government to treat social cohesion with the same legal rigor the state applied to wildflowers. He wants a national framework adopted within the first 100 days of the new term. The initiative, Hamechane, is led by relatives of soldiers killed in the Israel-Gaza War who believe internal division helped enable the October 7 catastrophe.

The group’s members include bereaved families, captivity survivors, and wounded veterans. Shapiro’s son Aner was killed on October 7, 2023, while defending Nova music festival attendees. Shai Zohar is the uncle of Capt. Omer Neutra, a New York native whose remains were repatriated from Gaza in November 2025. Hoda Daxa’s husband, Col. Ehsan Daxa, commanded the 401st Armored Brigade and was killed in northern Gaza in October 2024.

Zohar identified internal polarization as the country’s greatest existential threat. He argued that pre-war divisions contributed to the October 7 attack. "Unity is an operating system, an approach," he said. He noted that Israel has already paid an immense price and cannot slip backward. Zohar acknowledged that he had not fully grasped the impact of the 2018 Nation-State Law on the Druze community until Daxa explained it to him.

The 2018 law reserves national self-determination for the Jewish people and designates Hebrew as the state language. It grants Arabic special status but lacks an explicit equality guarantee. The High Court upheld the law in 2021. In November 2023, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif called for constitutional recognition of Druze rights, while the ruling coalition promised separate legislation on the matter.

Daxa, who is Druze, stated that belonging is tested in daily life. She recalled sensing discomfort from passengers when she spoke Arabic on a train with her children. "Hatred doesn't distinguish," she said. She emphasized that unity must extend beyond Jewish solidarity and that group members vote for different parties. They maintain that conversation works because participants are willing to listen rather than assume one side is correct.

Shapiro described a yearlong process of building a shared vision across religious, secular, haredi, Druze, and political lines. He cited his grandfather Haim-Moshe Shapiro, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who urged Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to broaden the government before the Six-Day War. In June 1967, the cabinet expanded to include Gahal and Rafi. Shapiro recalled that his son Aner had written on social media before his death that there really is no "them," criticizing rigid categories of religious and secular identity.

The group has not defined the specific structure of the proposed body, leaving that task to elected officials and professionals. Shapiro wants children to learn about different communities and how to handle disagreement. He also seeks measures against online activity that inflames hatred. The group hopes to encourage personal connections through schools, workplaces, and communities. Daxa said recognizing polarization as a national danger would be a first step. Shapiro stressed that the goal is not to sacrifice lives but to listen and remember that disagreement does not cancel mutual obligations.