IDF bereaved parents cry foul over nixed Independence Day choir

A group of bereaved parents of fallen IDF soldiers sent a letter Sunday to Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev imploring her to reconsider a decision to ax their choir performance from the popular torch lighting ceremony that launches Israel’s Independence Day celebrations.

Some 300 parents signed the missive from the Or Lamishpachot (A Light unto the Families) organization, which gives social support to bereaved families, expressing their disappointment that the performance was canceled, Hadashot TV news reported.

“Since the decision to cancel our participation in the name of our dear and beloved sons was made known, and without any explanation or justification, we feel a stinging insult,” the parents wrote. “The feeling is that a decision concerning the bereaved parents can be changed with the wave of a hand, and without any moral or ethical justification.”

In a Facebook post responding to the letter, Regev indicated that the choir performance was canceled on the advisement of two of the country’s main military bereavement and memorial organizations, Yad Lebanim and the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization, which prefer that all bereaved families be represented together.

“I decided to accept the position of the representative organizations so as not to get mixed up in an argument that is not mine,” she said. “At the ceremony there will be a decent and honorable representation of the bereaved families that I love and respect.”

The minister included in her Facebook post a letter she received from the directors of the Yad Lebanim and the widows’ organization, in which they explained that because several independent groups serving bereaved families had each requested a slot at the ceremony, they recommended a single, unified presentation for all bereaved families instead.

“We, the organizations representing the bereaved families in the country… decided to give up the appearance by bereaved parents and IDF widows at the torch lighting ceremony in the name of the unified family of the bereaved, and in light of the fact that there are other bereaved parents who wished to appear at the ceremony,” the directors wrote.

“The participation of the parents’ choir is not merely a musical event,” the parents wrote. “It is a performance and participation that symbolizes the connection and the continuation of the boys’ presence during a ceremony that would not exist without them, as would not the State of Israel.”

The Or Lamishpachot choir had reportedly been asked to sing during the ceremony, but last week said the offer had been withdrawn.

Regev, whose ministry is responsible for organizing the event, added, “I have tried to not become involved in the dispute between the organizations, out of respect for each of the organizations.”

The upcoming torch-lighting ceremony for Israel’s 70th Independence Day, which will take place this year on the evening of May 1, has already been touched by controversy. Last November, Hadashot reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had canceled a planned speech at the event, and in January, Hebrew media reports said that Regev had ordered a left-leaning singer be nixed from the show, a claim the minister denied.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.