Natan Sharansky speaking at The Algemeiner‘s annual gala in New York City, Oct. 25, 2023. Photo: Screenshot

Natan Sharansky, the famed refusenik and international campaigner against antisemitism, on Wednesday said that the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 was a wakeup call for Israelis about threats to the Jewish state.

“We forgot that we should not take the existence of the State of Israel for granted,” Sharansky said. “We believed that antisemitism is something Jews of the diaspora keep suffering — of course we have to help them — but it’s not something about Israel. And definitely pogroms, it’s not part of our history. So we had to learn, and now we are learning how to live again. It’s not the end of history … we have to go through our wars and our battles again.”

Speaking at The Algemeiner‘s annual J100 gala in New York, Sharansky said that the Hamas massacre of more than 1,400 people had unified Israel in an unprecedented way.

“We have no choice. We have to fight,” Sharansky said. “Israel changed in one day from the most polarized society to the most united society. For the first time that I have been in Israel, there is no left and right. There is no hatred towards the ultra-Orthodox and no hatred towards the anti-religious. Everybody feels we are one family. In two days, it was the quickest mobilization in the history of Israel. 300,000 people were called up to the army; 360,000 people came to the army.”