My brother was killed in the Golan Heights, I’m a combat pilot; Karhi and his cronies keep calling us traitors but now want us to be civil?!
“After Karhi, Distal, Gottlieb, Amsalem, and others labeled us terrorists, anarchists, and traitors, and told us to go to hell, you want us to be civil in the name of unity?! Well then, in the name of unity and civility, I call on government members who didn’t serve in the IDF – do not come to the cemeteries on Memorial Day. It’s the least you can do to honor those who fell”
Yaron, the brother of Eitan Gissin who was killed with 23 of his comrades from the Armored Corps’ commando unit in the horrific battle of Buq’ata in the Golan Heights on the third day of the Yom Kippur War
At first, we saw one or two holding signs that gave us the chills. Photographs of brothers, fathers, sons killed in battle. But the closer Memorial Day came, the more signs there were: Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beer Sheva. Those holding the signs came together as a group that felt mounting stress and anxiety with the passage of each day, all asking themselves: “As the threat of Israel becoming a dictatorship rises, how will we act? What will we do about memorializing our loved ones’ lives? What are we to make of their sacrifice?”
(Sensitive photos of bereaved families: Ben Cohen)
At first, they sent a letter to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in which they asked him not to mail the annual holiday present. Then they decided to return the gift. Afterwards, they had the idea to turn the Defense Ministry’s packages into an installation. And, throughout, the clock was ticking down to Memorial Day.
Finally, they called for a press conference at the Maccabiah Village in which they beseeched the government not to send representatives to the cemeteries to give speeches there:
[Above: excerpt from Ynet of March 26, 2023; headline reads “Bereaved families to politicians: ‘Are we anarchists? Don’t come to the ceremonies’”]
This, of course, didn’t help. Defense Minister Gallant rejected the request: “At this time, more than ever, Israeli society needs a unifying message, not a divisive one. Military cemeteries are places where fallen men and women from every segment of Israeli society are buried. The demand to exclude publicly elected officials from the cemeteries is akin to folding up the Israeli flag.”
All pleas went unheard. As politicians insisted on coming, the bereaved families’ distress rose. Particularly galling was the plan for Ben-Gvir attending the cemetery in Beer Sheva and giving a speech there.
At this point, various families made public announcements that they would not be coming to the official ceremonies on Memorial Day (Gallant, by the way, told one bereaved sister that if the presence of a politician at the cemetery bothered her so much, she was welcome to go there on a different day).
According to Noam Laneer, son of pilot Lt. Col. Avi Laneer, whose plane was shot down on Yom Kippur above Syria and was tortured to death in Syrian captivity:
וואו נעם לניר, וואו pic.twitter.com/j5FeAAZByq
— Roee Neuman🏳️⚧️🇮🇱🏳️🌈 (@NeumanRoee) April 21, 2023
In the meantime, the pleas of the bereaved families, including those of the Druse community, were ignored. Politicians would come despite being unwanted.
But the families worked to put together Memorial Day events:
Saturday night, April 22, 2023, 7 p.m., Kaplan Street: at the installation “Na’eer venazkeer” (“To light and Memorialize”)
credit: Orna Naor
יום שלישי, 25.4.23 יערכו בשעה 11:00 טקס זכרון ממלכתי עצמאי ברוטשילד 16, ת״א
ועוד צפויים אירועים
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כ”כ עצוב… אתם מדהימים. חזקים. מקווה שבכ”ז הפוליטיקאים יתעשתו. תודה שאתם אתם
פוליטיקאי יקר – אם לעשות דווקא זה בדמך – אז אנא כבד את זכרון יקירי ויקירות האומה שנפלו למען המדינה ושא רגליך למקום אחר. מקומך לא עם הבאים למקום הכואב שלנו. ואם אתה בא בנפש דאובה וחפצה – של נעליך מעל רגליך, הרכן ראשך ודום ביחד עם כולם. האזן לשקט ולסערה הפנימית שמושיטה לב חם ואוהב לאלה שהקריבו נפשם. יקירינו ויקירותינו.
מסכים עם כל מילה בטקסט הנפלא הכתוב כאן. פגעת בול בלב הבעיה!
במותם ציוו לנו מדינה דמוקרטית. חובתנו היום לקיים את צוואתם!
יום שהוא חשוב לא לפוליטיקאים,אלא לאותם אנשים הנושאים את זכר יקירם ביתר שאת , ביום זיכרון לאומי,לא חגיגי,לא מרהיב,לא ידידותי לסביבה.אנשים שנצרבו בעורקינו ,לעד.
מסכימה עם כל מילה. במותם ציוו עלינו לשמור על הדמוקרטיה ועל מדינת ישראל. מחזקת את המשפחות השכולות כל אחת בבחירתה אם להיות או לא טקס זו זכותם. היום הזה הוא שלהם ועבורם יום בו אנחנו מכבדים אותם על ההקרבה שלהם למען המדינה לכן צריך היה לכבד את הבקשות שלהם. עצוב מאד.
יהיה זכר הנופלים ברוך 🙏🙏