The government voted in favor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to change the official name of the Israel-Hamas War from Operation Swords of Iron to the War of Revival during Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
Directly after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, the ensuing war was called Operation Swords of Iron. This decision to amend the original name has been made in the wake of Israel’s recent ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“After two years of continuous fighting, we remember how we began, rising from the terrible disaster of October 7,” Netanyahu told the cabinet ahead of the vote to change the name.
“This was a war of revival for our nation, a direct continuation of the War of Independence,” Netanyahu said.
He added that the War of Revival will now be the official name used on “medals of valor and commendations to our brave soldiers and commanders,” which he said are currently being prepared.
'Name is taken,' argues Chikli
The vote passed by a vast majority, though National Missions Minister Orit Strock (Religious Zionist Party) voted against it, and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud) abstained.
According to a Saturday KAN News report, the decision to make the name change will cost NIS two million.
On Saturday, Chikli said ahead of the vote that the revised name was “unsuitable for various reasons.”
“Technically, the name is already in use. The War of Independence is also known as the War of Revival, based on an initiative by prime minister David Ben-Gurion,” he said.
However, the diaspora affairs minister continued, Operation Swords of Iron should be changed, and alternative names for the war should be offered.
Changing the title resulted in criticism from opposition politicians and hostage family members as well.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) slammed the decision, calling it an escape from guilt and responsibility for the attacks, along with an attempt to “erase” the government’s failures on October 7.
“The government can call the October 7 war whatever it wants – it won’t help,” Lapid said. “This was not a ‘war of revival.’ If anything, it was the ‘war of blame,’ named after all those who tried to escape responsibility and failed.”
He added that slain hostages Daniel Peretz and Inbar Hayman, whose bodies were held by Hamas for two years, will “never be revived.”
“This was, and remains, the October 7 war, the October 7 government, and the October 7 disaster,” Lapid said.“All attempts to erase what happened will fail, because the real story was written in blood.”
Avigdor Liberman, the chair of Yisrael Beytenu, said, “Changing the name of the war won’t change reality. The revival of the people of Israel will happen in the upcoming elections.”
Yonatan, the brother of hostage Alon Shamriz, who was mistakenly killed by the IDF while in Gaza in December 2023, said that he intended to file a petition against the war’s name change, Ynet reported on Sunday.
“No one will be able to blur or erase what we went through. While the bodies of hostages are still returning in coffins daily, the government is busy rewriting history and marginalizing the disaster that happened under its watch,” he said.
“This won’t work. The war will forever be called ‘the October 7 war’ as an eternal reminder of the catastrophe. Hundreds of families will prevent anyone from approaching their loved ones’ graves to rebrand this disastrous failing as a ‘revival’ at their expense,” Yonatan Shamriz said.
Alternatively, coalition ministers spoke highly of the name change, with MK Avichay Boaron (Likud) saying that it was part of “the desire to set the narrative,” in a Sunday N12 News interview.
“We must lift our gaze and instill confidence in the people of Israel, and say that we were in a crisis, we overcame that crisis, and then we turned it into a great opportunity and a great success,” he said.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) said that “since the prime minister proposed the name ‘War of Revival,’ I have made a point of using it,” during a Sunday KolBarama radio interview.
“We are seeing the results of the war. We can walk with our heads held high while our enemies fall before us,” he said.
Netanyahu has tried to change the war’s name since 2023. Names proposed in the past included the “Genesis war,” the “Gaza war,” and the “Simchat Torah war.”
Hostage families protested previous attempts to change the name, saying that “there can be no revival without the return of all the captives.”