Government ministers shouted down at funeral for children killed by Hezbollah attack
‘Get out of here, you trash!’: Mourners assail Barkat, Smotrich as 10 of the 12 youngsters struck by rocket on soccer field Saturday are laid to rest in Druze town of Majdal Shams
Mourners on Sunday shouted down government ministers at a funeral for 10 of the 12 children and young people killed when a Hezbollah rocket struck a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, wounding dozens more.
“Now you come here? Ten months you didn’t come!” a man wearing a military uniform shouted at Housing Minister Nir Barkat and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, to applause from the crowd.
“One drone hits Tel Aviv and you turn Yemen upside down! Why is Beirut still there? Why is there still a Beirut, at all?” the man asked angrily.
Israel conducted a major airstrike on the Hodeida port in Yemen last week, after an attack drone sent by the Iranian-backed Houthi terror group killed an Israeli man in Tel Aviv.
“Months, they’ve been shelling us. My child cries in the morning!” the man said, shouting that he’d been in reserve duty for ten months. He swatted away Barkat’s hand as the minister approached him. “Our soul is ripped apart here!” he said.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has called repeatedly for war with Hezbollah, attempted to appease the crowd, but was similarly harangued. “We want quiet and we don’t get it!” another resident shouted. “We’re tired of your promises!”
Another man present called the finance minister, as well as fellow far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, “racists,” and said they were to blame for the deadly attack.
כך התקבל השר סמוטריץ' במג'דל שמס בלווית הילדים שנרצחו אתמול במגרש הכדורגל. pic.twitter.com/lTwxLPloEL
— ענבר בזק Inbar Bezek (@InbarBezek) July 28, 2024
In a video posted to X, hecklers around Smotrich can be heard shouting, “You’re a murderer! You murdered your people,” and “We don’t want him!” as well as swearing at the minister. The Ynet news site quoted others as shouting “They came to take pictures,” and “You trash, you dog! Get out of here, you trash!”
The politicians came despite a reported request by Yasser Gadban, chairman of the Forum of Druze and Circassian Authorities, that government ministers not attend the funerals. “We ask all government representatives, ministers and senior officers, do not come,” he said in a letter.
“Due to the sensitivity of the situation, we ask that you not turn a massacre event into a political event. We are requesting a quiet, religious funeral in accordance with Druze custom,” he wrote.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also visited Majdal Shams on Sunday. “The children who died in this soccer field could have been any of our children, and as such they are indeed all of our children,” he said.
“The job of the state is to give security to children. Children are not supposed to die in the wars of adults. The state failed, the government failed. We apologize to the families. We ask the forgiveness of these children,” added Lapid. “The reaction [to the strike] will be harsh, and it will reverberate throughout the Middle East. We will not just let this pass.”
