Dr. Hili Kochavi, educational psychologist and academic, parenting expert, founder and leader of the “Come” project – a project of physical and mental health professionals, established to save the hostages, and continues to work to save Israeli society as a whole, spoke at the demonstration of support for the justice system and the call for equal burden and the establishment of a state commission of inquiry held tonight (July 4, 2026) by the Movement for Quality Government and the Forum of Protest Organizations at Habima Square Habima in Tel Aviv:
1002 days since the massacre.
1002 days of neglect. Death, lies, violence and government corruption.
1002 days of escaping responsibility. 1002 days without a state commission of inquiry.
1002 days of hell.
But “he”, “he” has lost a little weight.
Friends,
This is not our country. These are not our values. We are not willing to live and raise our children in a corrupt, violent country that sanctifies death and neglect, over life, responsibility and compassion.
But I want to talk to you tonight specifically about the possibility of growing out of the disaster.
As a therapist, I know that major traumas can dismantle, destroy, leave us shocked, angry, morally wounded, and most of all – desperate and helpless.
But I know something else:
Sometimes, precisely from the greatest fracture – something new can grow.
This happens – first of all, when there is a full recognition of the truth. A state commission of inquiry must be established!
This happens when the great trauma sharpens and reveals our values; increases the sense of meaning.
Great disasters help us discover new things about ourselves. Forces we didn’t know existed within us. They help us notice what is important to us, and what we will never be willing to give up.
And another condition – perhaps the most important of all: growth following a crisis can occur when people join together, and fight for the truth and their values – together.
Let’s look around us for a moment: we are in this together, and therefore we will win.
When I see Carmit Palti-Katzir, Ofri Bibas, Merav Svirsky, Gil Dickman, Eyal Eshel, Esther Buchstab, Danny Elgart, Ayala Metzger, Rafi Ben-Shitrit, and many, many more – people who have gone through the greatest disasters imaginable, and yet get up every morning, struggle, and do not give up on this country – I know that we will succeed.
This endless disaster will give rise to a new reality!
This is not right or left, religious-secular, Jewish-Arab. It is a joint struggle of good, honest, and moral citizens – for a normal-liberal-progressive-moral state that desires life.
A state that sanctifies human life. That is loyal to the truth, a state that has excellent education, culture, security, a prosperous economy, equality. Democracy. And hope. A state that strives for peace.
But hope cannot remain a passive wish.
Hope is action. And now we need to act.
If a beloved family member were very sick, and needed us for three months to recover – wouldn’t we stop everything to help him?
So our country is very sick. And it needs each and every one of us, for the next three months – until the elections – to save it.
The “Come” project is launching the Hundred Thousand Challenge tonight: in the coming months we will meet face to face with at least 100,000 people. We will meet the despairing, the deniers, those who have grown tired; we will meet men and women from Arab society, young men and women, we will meet everyone! To make this happen – visit our website now and invite us to a meeting, on a full volunteer basis!
As an expert in the field of parenting, I know: there is nothing that parents won’t do for their children.
The vast majority of the Israeli public wants only one thing for their children: a country where they can live a sane and normal life!
We succeeded, with a terrible and unbearable delay, in returning the kidnapped. Now we need to get the State of Israel back on track, and grow a better future here for our children.
Let’s make it happen. Let’s make it good here.
