After protests, ultra-Orthodox minister staying away from Memorial Day ceremony
Bereaved families express relief over decision, after telling Yitzhak Goldknopf to skip Kiryat Gat event and instead work on ‘recruiting yeshiva students’
Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf said Wednesday he will not attend a Memorial Day ceremony at Kiryat Gat’s military cemetery, after an outcry from bereaved families in the city who opposed his presence.
It marked the second year in a row that the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, minister has opted out of attending the ceremony in the face of pushback from bereaved families.
Despite vowing to attend the day before, Goldknopf said that he will instead go to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem to recite Psalms for fallen soldiers and prayers for the swift return of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.
A statement on his behalf said he notified the cabinet secretary that he will not arrive at the cemetery “despite his desire” to be part of the day of remembrance for those who died in Israel’s war and victims of terror activities.
The bereaved families at the ceremony expressed relief after he withdrew his participation. Galim Yaffa, whose two nephews were killed in action, said Goldknopf should never have been invited.
“It’s outrageous to send someone who danced to the words ‘We will die rather than enlist’ to a ceremony honoring fallen soldiers,” she said, referencing a widely circulated video from last month showing the minister dancing to an anti-Zionist, anti-IDF song.
In a letter addressed to Goldknopf on Tuesday, the families had written: “We, several bereaved families from Kiryat Gat, ask you in every way possible not to attend the Memorial Day ceremony for IDF fallen soldiers in Kiryat Gat.”
They added, “We believe that someone representing groups in Israeli society who refuse to bear the burden of military service cannot stand before bereaved parents and speak on a day that is so sacred to us.”
Goldknopf, who chairs the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, has strongly opposed conscripting Haredi men into the IDF despite heightened tensions over the issue, in part due to the ongoing Gaza offensive.
The families wrote that they preferred that Goldknopf invest his time in “recruiting yeshiva students” rather than speaking to bereaved families at the cemetery.
Goldknopf was assigned to the Kiryat Gat cemetery last year, too, sparking outrage among many bereaved families. Eventually, he respected their wishes not to attend.
The war in the Gaza erupted on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 abducted as hostages to the coastal enclave. Of those, 59, alive and dead, are still in captivity.
Haim Saadon, a signatory to the letter whose brother Avner was killed in action in 1974, called on Goldknopf to skip the ceremony and have another minister attend in his stead.
“As a bereaved family, we feel that there is a moral and ethical offense to our feelings here,” Saadon told Channel 12 on Tuesday. “As soon as everyone enlists in the army, I’ll leave him be, but it cannot stand that someone who doesn’t enlist in the army should come and speak at the Memorial Day ceremony.”
The IDF has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
Currently, approximately 70,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted.
The High Court of Justice issued a provisional order on Sunday demanding the government explain its failure to issue enough conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to meet the needs of the IDF, and its failure to enforce the orders it has issued.
The order instructed the government to explain those failures to the court in a written statement by June 24.
Tensions over the Gaza war have clouded coalition members’ attendance at memorial events. On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana were both heckled during a ceremony at the Yad Labanim memorial for fallen soldiers in Jerusalem.
During his speech, Netanyahu was interrupted by protesting members of bereaved families, one of whom shouted, “You didn’t come to comfort us — you destroyed us.”
Ohana was also interrupted by a bereaved father during his speech, after he mentioned Maj. Dvir Zion Revah, an IDF company commander who was killed in northern Gaza in January.
“Don’t speak about my son!” Avi Revah shouted. “Don’t speak about my child, you don’t deserve to! You will not speak about him! You are not worthy of his blood!”
Ohana responded to Revah that he respects his wishes, but asked for permission to read aloud a prayer written by Dvir shortly before his death.
At the official state memorial event at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, President Isaac Herzog urged the public to set aside divisions and work toward peace and unity across Israeli society.
The Times of Israel Community.