One year ago today, on 7 October 2023 — a date which will forever more live in infamy — the nation of Israel was struck a terrible blow.

Small towns like Kfar Azza, Be'eri, Ofakim, and Nahal Oz were turned from peaceful communities into charnel houses.

No one was spared.

Families were burnt alive, infants were slayed in their cots, mothers and fathers were executed in front of their offspring.

At the Nova music festival, women were sexually assaulted and mutilated.

Those seeking to flee were shot dead inside their vehicles, or abducted to endure an unimaginable ordeal.

No one was spared.

In 1956 Moshe Dayan, speaking at the funeral of Roi Rothberg, a young Israeli killed at Nahal Oz, spoke of an 'ocean of hatred' swelling across Israel's borders, waiting for the moment that calm would blunt Israel's readiness.

67 years later, on 7 October, that ocean was unleashed.

Of the almost 1200 people murdered that day, some bodies still remain unidentified, such was their disfigurement.

One of the first Israeli officials to arrive at the scene said "It's not a war or a battlefield, it's a massacre ... It's something I never saw in my life, something more like a pogrom from our grandparents' time."

October 7 was not a military operation, but an organised massacre of Jews.

Not since the Holocaust have more Jews been murdered in a single day.

Not since the Holocaust have Jews been slaughtered and terrorised in such a way.

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One year since that day of infamy, 101 hostages remain held in Gaza, in conditions that defy comprehension.

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Israel continues to fight for its survival, on several fronts.

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Israel’s enemies continue to strike it, and make their implacable hatred — their determination to destroy the state of Israel — manifestly clear.

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And one year since that day of infamy, members of the Australian Jewish community have endured a level of hostility, vitriol, intimidation and aggression that they could never have imagined would emerge from their fellow citizens.

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It is a tragic failing of our nation that we, a nation that prides itself on our collective ability to welcome people of all faiths and ethnicities, to give them sanctuary from strife, have not been able to provide this most cherished part of our Australian community with the protection, safety and support it deserves at this time of grief.

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As we reflect back on the horrors of October 7th, we cannot credibly claim a measure of understanding for an atrocity that obliterates our capacity for comprehension.

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We cannot credibly claim that the deep wounds inflicted have begun to heal the comfort we seek to offer in gatherings such as this is of only small solace.

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We cannot credibly claim that there will be justice for the victims, for their ordeal, and that of their families, defies the bounds of restitution.

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We can only, and with humility, commit to pray for the release of those hostages still held in Gaza, to honour the memory of the victims, to provide Australia's Jewish community with the comfort and support it deserves, and to affirm the profound attachment of the people of Israel  to life, to living, and to go on living, despite everything, to survive, as the greatest act of defiance in the face of this most monstrous crime.

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The people of Israel live.

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Am Yisrael Chai.

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