Lapid to boycott Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony over judicial overhaul

Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid announces he will not attend the traditional torch-lighting ceremony which ends Memorial Day and opens Independence Day, due to societal divisions he says the government has created with its radical judicial overhaul program.

In a message to Transportation Minister Miri Regev, he says he loves the State of Israel “but in three months you have divided Israeli society and no fake fireworks performance will cover that up.”

On Tuesday it was reported that Regev had decided that the live broadcast of the ceremony would give way to a recording of a rehearsal of the event should the actual torch-lighting ceremony be interrupted by anti-government protesters.

Earlier today, Lapid said the central TV stations should not agree to Regev’s proposal, insisting that the torch-lighting ceremony “is not a propaganda broadcast.”

His decision comes against the background of severe societal tensions over the government’s controversial judicial reform program, which has led to bereaved families to warn some government ministers and MKs not to attend Memorial Day services.

Eli Ben-Shem, chairman of the Yad Labanim organization, warns of verbal and even physical confrontations if ministers and MKs who did not serve in the IDF attend Memorial Day events at military cemeteries.

“They need to exercise common sense, otherwise there will be a catastrophe. [The military] cemeteries are the holy of holies of the State of Israel. If we will see violence and shouting over the graves of our children – I would want to die,” Ben- Shem tells Kan Radio.