Hamechane: Bereaved Families Demand 100-Day National Cohesion Plan

Moshe Shapiro stands at the intersection of personal grief and political strategy, asking a new government to treat social cohesion with the same urgency as national defense.

Shapiro’s son, Aner, died on October 7, 2023, while defending fellow attendees at the Nova music festival. Alongside Hoda Daxa and Shai Zohar, Shapiro leads Hamechane, an organization that includes bereaved families, captivity survivors, and wounded veterans. The group has set a specific timeline: the incoming government must enact a national framework for social cohesion within its first 100 days.

The initiative draws a direct parallel to the 1960s wildflower campaign, which combined legal protections with public education to embed environmental respect in the national consciousness. Shapiro argues that respect for diverse communities requires the same dual approach. He views internal division as a primary threat, a sentiment shared by Zohar, the uncle of Capt. Omer Neutra. Neutra, a soldier from New York, was killed on October 7, 2023, and his remains were returned in November 2025. Zohar stated that unity functions as an operating system and noted that Israel has already paid an immense price for its divisions.

Daxa, whose husband Col. Ehsan Daxa was killed leading troops in northern Gaza in October 2024, adds a personal dimension to the political debate. A Druze officer’s widow, she highlighted how the 2018 Nation-State Law affected her community. The law reserves national self-determination for the Jewish people and designates Hebrew as the state language, granting Arabic special status. While the High Court upheld the law in 2021, Daxa pointed to everyday microaggressions, such as sensing discomfort on a train when speaking Arabic, as evidence of persistent tension. She emphasized that unity must extend beyond Jewish solidarity.

The group spent a year drafting their shared vision, engaging with religious Jews, seculars, haredim, Druze, and members of the political spectrum. Shapiro noted that the group members vote for different parties but communicate through a willingness to listen. He cited his grandfather, Haim-Moshe Shapiro, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who advised Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in 1967 to widen the government during the Six Day War. That expansion included Menachem Begin’s Gahal party and Moshe Dayan’s Rafi party, with Dayan serving as defense minister.

Hamechane proposes specific mechanisms to bridge divides, including school curricula that teach communities about one another and measures to curb online hate. The organization has not defined the exact structure of the proposed body, leaving that decision to elected officials. Daxa suggested that formally recognizing polarization as a national danger would be a necessary first step. Shapiro clarified that the goal is not to force consensus but to ensure that disagreement does not cancel out mutual obligations.

The next phase of the election cycle will determine if these proposals gain traction. The group’s members have published their platform and are preparing for post-election engagement. Their demand for a 100-day deadline places the issue of social cohesion at the center of the incoming government's immediate legislative agenda.