‘Keep us one people’: Herzog pleads for peace within Israeli society in Memorial Day address

President Isaac Herzog pleads for the public to put aside division and work for peace and unity across Israeli society at the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem.

He opens his speech with a message to the 59 hostages who remain captive in Gaza, telling them: “A whole nation is missing you, worrying for you, crying your cry.”

Israel is “a nation tormented beyond measure,” the president says. “A nation that knows — deep in its soul, burned with longing and anxiety — that the wound cannot heal until you return.”

“Here, at the place where our soldiers swear to defend the homeland and the freedom of Israel — we too swear, I swear, not to rest and not to be still. Not to rest and not to be still. Not even for a moment. To act with all our might, by every means, to take one more step, and another, until all of you come home,” Herzog vows.

The president then turns to the main focus of his speech and shares the stories of several families that lost two or more family members in fighting or terror attacks.

“We have seen how the words ‘cleared for publication’ can destroy an entire world,” says Herzog, referring to the statements published by the military and in the media when a soldier is killed in action. “And, horrifyingly, how sometimes, within the very same home, yet another world is destroyed — how one family must endure loss upon loss, live life upon life layered with longing.”

He says that it is thanks to these families, “who gave everything — and then gave everything again,” that Israel endures.

“Beloved and cherished bereaved families,” he then says, “the truth must be spoken: We have never sought to live by the sword. We are not war-loving people.”

“On the contrary: peace was, and remains, our greatest yearning. We will never give up on reaching out for peace. Never,” Herzog vows. “At the same time, we will never renounce, even for a moment, our duty to defend ourselves, and our historic and natural right to exist—like every nation—sovereign in our homeland.”

He says that peace “is not only an aspiration outward, toward our neighbors, but a supreme, binding duty inward, within our own home.”

Throughout this difficult war, I have met thousands of bereaved families. One message, one plea, one cry rose from every heart, from every soul, again and again: lower the flames. Mend the hearts. Keep us one people.”

“Enough! Enough division! Enough polarization! Enough hatred!” the president implores. “We must not, by our own hands, bring about the destruction of our national home.”

He ends with a call for the public to “remove the IDF from political disputes,” and to “place the Shin Bet, the Mossad, the police, and all security services above all disputes.”