Bereaved parents heckle Netanyahu at Gaza war memorial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heckled Tuesday by parents of fallen soldiers during a memorial service marking the second anniversary of the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza.

During his speech at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Netanyahu was interrupted several times by shouts from the crowd accusing him of “making a mockery of democracy,” and calling for an inquiry into the 50-day conflict, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, that left 66 IDF soldiers and six Israeli civilians dead.

“My son fell for democracy, not for this regime,” shouted Yoram Tal, whose 22-year-old son Yoram was killed in the fighting. “Take a photo of the man who is making a mockery of democracy,” he urged photographers when they turned their cameras on him.

Netanyhau waited for Tal to sit down before responding.

“As a bereaved brother, I understand your pain,” he said to audible jeers from the crowd. The prime minister’s brother, Yoni Netanyahu, died during in the raid on Entebbe in 1976. “I know what loss and bereavement is. I did all I could not to expose our soldiers to unnecessary danger.”

“We don’t believe you,” Tal shouted in response, before storming out of the ceremony.

Minutes later, another bereaved father interrupted with shouts, demanding that the government hold an inquiry into how the operation was conducted.

“The families are asking the prime minister… to set up a commission of inquiry into the events of Protective Edge,” said Moti Matt, who lost his 19-year-old son Lee in the conflict.

Speaking to press after the speech, Lee Matt’s mother, Smadar, also called for an inquiry, in the form of “an external state commission, headed by a judge, which will review all the events of Protective Edge.”

“This is the entire demand, but the prime minister comes along and paints everything rose-colored and everything will be fine,” she said. “So what does he care whether there is a committee?”

It wasn’t the first time Netanyahu has been heckled by bereaved families at a memorial service.

At this year’s official Memorial Day ceremony in May, he was interrupted by the brother of a security guard killed in a terror attack, who accused the premier of being too soft on terrorists. He was also jeered at the memorial in 2014, when terror victims were protesting the prisoner releases of convicted Palestinian terrorists as part of peace talk agreements.

Earlier Tuesday, Education Minister Naftali Bennett accused the prime minister of refusing to learn from mistakes in the lead-up to the 2014 war, a day after Netanyahu claimed to have been well-apprised of the threat of cross-border tunnels.

“Every platoon leader draws conclusions at the end of an exercise in order to prevent future mistakes and to improve,” Bennett, who heads the right-wing Jewish Home party, wrote on Twitter. “What is true for an infantry division is doubly true for the diplomatic-security leadership of the State of Israel.”

An unnamed Likud official later said Bennett’s accusations were a “total lie.”

On Monday, Netanyahu told a group of military reporters that claims he had been caught unawares by Hamas incursions into Israeli territory via an extensive cross-border tunnel system were false.

During his speech at the Tuesday memorial service Netanyahu claimed the operation had been a success.

“Hamas suffered the worst hit in its history,” he said. “Around 1,000 terror operatives were killed during the operation, senior commanders were taken out, and most of their rockets were destroyed.”