Liberman bars 110 Palestinians from Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day service
Defense minister calls event ‘a demonstration of bad taste and insensitivity’; organizers to appeal
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said he is barring the entry to Israel of 110 Palestinians who were due to attend an Israeli-Palestinian memorial service in Tel Aviv next Tuesday night, saying the event was a “desecration” of the Memorial Day for fallen soldiers.
“This is not a memorial ceremony, but a demonstration of bad taste and insensitivity that hurts the bereaved families that are most precious to us,” he tweeted Tuesday.
The Palestinians were invited as participants to the ceremony organized by the Combatants for Peace and the Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace groups as an alternative to the standard Israeli Memorial Day events.
The organizers accused Liberman of desecrating the day.
“Defense Minister Liberman is the one who desecrates Memorial Day through his action and he hurts Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families who seek to promote a dialogue of reconciliation,” they said. “This is a cynical political use of a tool which is intended to be for security,” Walla news reported.
The organizers added that Liberman’s decision was made “with the sole intent of hurting bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families who want to mark Memorial Day together through mutual respect and recognition that pain and suffering are not theirs alone and do not belong exclusively to any side.”
They said they would appeal to the High Court over the defense minister’s decision.
This is the thirteenth year the event has been held, and the second in succession that Palestinian participants were barred. Organizers said that the event was in jeopardy due to lack of funding. They said they had “great difficulty” finding a venue that would agree to host the event, and were forced to have it outdoors in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.
“We have a powerful message of nonviolence and mutual dignity that some would like suppressed,” the group said in its fundraising appeal.
“What began as a small ceremony of 50 people in 2005 is now the largest event of the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement,” the group said.
Meretz party leader Tamar Zandberg said it was sad that Liberman was turning Memorial Day into a controversial issue.
“This is another political maneuver on the backs of bereaved families,” she said. “The government of Netanyahu and Liberman wants to also make use of the bereaved to divide the citizens of Israel,” Channel 10 reported.
Last year Palestinians were also denied entry permits into Israel for the event, which took place shortly after a Palestinian teenager who entered Israel with such a one-day pass for a “Natural Peace tour” attacked four people in a Tel Aviv hotel with a pair of wire-cutters, lightly injuring all of them.
Last year, the West Bank Palestinians who planned to attend the ceremony in Tel Aviv instead gathered in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, to watch the proceedings on a television screen. The two Palestinians slated to speak at the event delivered their remarks through pre-recorded videos.
Next Tuesday night and Wednesday, Israel marks its Memorial Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Hazikaron, honoring the thousands of fallen soldiers and terror victims.
The country observes two sirens, one at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday and another at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. On Wednesday night, the country switches to celebrating Independence Day.
Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
