‘Israelis or Palestinians aren’t going anywhere…So we must find ways to live together…Things will be normal by April’

Israel’s former minister of science and technology Izhar Shaylost his son in the October 7 Hamas attack. He spoke with Rudroneel Ghosh about his October Next project to seed 1,400 start-ups to commemorate every Israeli victim; that most Arab states will be relieved once Hamas is “eliminated” and the Two-State solution:

What is the Next October project?

My son, a soldier in the Israeli army, was stationed with his unit on the border of Gaza and Israel. The morning of October 7 Hamas terrorists attacked and outnumbered that unit. My son, along with other soldiers, heroically protected civilians at a kibbutz. But they paid a high price. My son was killed in action the same day. He was 21, my fourth and youngest son.

During mourning, the family tried to figure out ways to commemorate my son. We thought of planting trees, a Jewish custom. But because of my background in high tech we made the connection with the term ‘seeding’, as in to seed a company, analogous to seed a tree. So we came around to seeding a company in my son’s name. And from there we thought of expanding the plan to seed a company for every fallen victim of the Hamas attack.
We have three messages: First, help the Israeli economy by seeding 1,400 start-ups. Second, each startup attached to one victim, decides together with the victim’s family how best to commemorate the fallen.

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